Epigenetic biomarkers in urological tumors: A systematic review

Prostate, bladder, kidney and testis cancers, the most common genitourinary (GU) neoplasms, are generally clinically silent at their earliest stages when curative treatment is most likely successful. However, there are no consensual guidelines for GU cancer screening and available methods are characterized by suboptimal sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, standard clinical and pathological parameters meet with important limitations in the assessment of prognosis in an individual basis. Herein, we focus on the development of epigenetic-based GU cancer biomarkers, which have emerged from exploratory studies in recent years and that hold the promise to revolutionize the clinical management of GU cancer patients. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.