Urological malignancies and the proteomic-genomic interface

The urological malignancies, renal, bladder and prostate cancer, account fo r approximately 16% of all cancer cases. Unfortunately 5-year survival rate s are relatively poor, largely a result of many cases not being diagnosed b efore the tumour has metastasised. There is a clear need for the identifica tion of markers which will allow earlier detection of disease, and predict prognosis and response to therapy. In addition, they may be of use as thera peutic targets. Current advances in molecular biology are allowing the iden tification of a number of tumour-associated changes which could be of clini cal use in the future. However, with the rapid technological advances being made in the field of proteomics, this approach could be integrated with ge nomics providing a complementary alternative, overcoming disparities betwee n mRNA levels and protein production, and additionally allowing the identif ication of tumour-associated post-translational modifications. These approa ches have already been used to identify novel genes and other cancer-relate d changes involved in the pathogenesis of urological malignancies. This rev iew describes current progress in the genomic and proteomic study of urolog ical malignancies, and highlights the potential of using proteomic technolo gies in the study of this group of diseases.