Liquid biopsies for detection, surveillance, and prognosis of urothelial cancer: a future standard?

Introduction: Liquid biopsies are used for the detection of tumor-specific elements in body fluid. Their application in prognosis and diagnosis of muscle/non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC/NMIBC) or upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) remains poorly known and rarely mentioned in clinical guidelines.

Areas covered: Herein, we provide an overview of current data regarding the use of liquid biopsies in urothelial tumors.

Expert opinion: Studies that were included analyzed liquid biopsies using the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), exosomes, or metabolomics. The sensitivity of blood CTC detection in patients with localized cancer was 35% and raised to 50% in patients with metastatic cancer. In NMIBC patients, blood CTC was associated with poor prognosis, whereas discrepancies were seen in MIBC patients. Circulating plasma DNA presented a superior sensitivity to urine and was a good indicator for diagnosis, follow-up, and oncological outcome. In urine, specific bladder cancer (BC) microRNA had an overall sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 86% in the diagnosis of urothelial cancer. These results are in favor of the use of liquid biopsies as biomarkers for in urothelial cancer management.