New knowledge of genes driving bladder cancer points to targeted treatments

A collaborative study between researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) examined a mutation-rich layer of the genome called the exome of 54 bladder tumors from primarily Caucasian patients. The study is the first to show alterations in the gene BAP1 in 15 percent of tumors; the gene is a likely tumor suppressor and so bladder cancers with alterations in this gene may be without an important check on the growth and survival of bladder cancer tissue. Somatic BAP1 alterations contribute to a high frequency of tumors (10/14, 71 percent) with defects in genes encoding BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathway proteins, pathways that have been previously implicated in breast and other cancer types. Read more here.