Molecular pathology of tumour progression and metastasis

About 30% of all patients with newly diagnosed bladder cancer will present with muscle-invasive disease and about half of them will eventually die from the disease, despite mutilating surgery or polychemotherapy. The steps underlying tumour progression are invasion and metastasation. Thanks to the achievements of molecular biology, these processes are increasingly better understood. The new results arising will be eventually translated and incorporated into our current clinical knowledge. They form the basis for future strategies to manage locally advanced or metastatic bladder cancer.