High risk of recurrence despite removal.

• Position: Breast Cancer

Patients with advanced bladder cancer that are removed surgically might need additional therapy to prevent recurrence in certain situations, suggests a study in European Urology. The five-year international study validates the use of a marker panel to predict which patients are more likely to have a recurrence of cancer after bladder removal, thereby identifying those patients as good candidates for follow-up chemotherapy.

The findings are important because additional molecular information could help bladder-cancer patients and their physicians decide whether administering further toxic chemotherapy is worth the risk, indicates urologist Yair Lotan, the study's primary investigator and first author.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in men, according to the American Cancer Society, which estimates that more than 72,500 cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, and that more than 15,200 people will die from the disease.

Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer typically are treated by removing all or part of the bladder (a cystectomy procedure) but are infrequently given additional chemotherapy, despite...