S9-Fibronectin, EGF-R, HB-EGF:biomarkers of urothelial damage during intravesical adjuvant therapy?

Intravesical chemotherapy and immunotherapy with BCG represent the standard therapy to prevent recurrence after transurethral resection (TUR) of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMI-BC). Maintenance for at least one year is considered the best regimen. Noteworthy, a relevant number of patients do not complete the planned treatment due to local toxicity of the drug given intravesically1, 2. A major challenge for the urologists is to identify an early urothelial damage biomarker to prevent severe local toxicity requiring treatment interruption and to improve patient's compliance. The preliminary purpose of our research was to verify the possible correlation between urothelial damage induce…