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Chemoprevention Strategies for Bladder Cancer

Cancer Connect

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The UW Prostate and Genitourinary Cancer Program (UWPGCP) and the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, the state's only comprehensive cancer center, take a multidisciplinary approach to treating bladder cancer.

 

Prevention Research

 

The UW Carbone Cancer Center and the University of Wisconsin Department of Urology is conducting research in the areas of chemoprevention, early events in carcinogenesis and biological markers of tumor recurrence and progression in bladder cancer and other genitourinary malignancies.

 

We are particularly interested in evaluating agents which may delay bladder cancer recurrence and progression. Based on laboratory data and recent clinical trials, agents which show great promise in chemoprevention include:
  • DFMO (Difluoromethylornithin)
  • Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 selective inhibitors

The Benefits of Research

 

These agents are being evaluated in patients at high risk for tumor recurrence and progression, such as those with carcinoma in situ or high grade superficial bladder cancer. The ability to more accurately predict which patients with superficial bladder cancer will progress will also allow us to treat these patients more effectively. This research will hopefully enhance bladder-sparing approaches for treating bladder cancer, in which fewer patients with superficial bladder cancer will ultimately require radical cystectomy.

 

The UW Carbone Cancer Center has the resources to build a program in chemoprevention research, and as a tertiary referral center, many patients with genitourinary cancers such as bladder cancer may benefit from this research. It is our hope that these research efforts will lead to the prevention and early detection of bladder cancer, more accurate staging, appropriate patient selection for treatment, and more effective therapies.