[Urothelial cancers. Cytogenetic and molecular biology principles].

Cytogenetic studies and analysis of restriction fragment polymorphism (RFLP) have revealed that chromosomes 9, 11 and 17 are frequently altered in urothelial tumors. There are several tumor suppressor genes that might be involved in the oncogenesis of these tumors. The retinoblastoma suppressor gene and p53 have been the subjects of several recent investigations and have been seen to be altered or inactivated in a significant number of tumors. Proto-oncogenes of the ras family have been studied extensively, and c-Ha-ras alterations have been demonstrated in approximately 10% of urothelial tumors. Other proto-oncogenes seem to be involved less frequently. Although correlations between these molecular genetic findings and clinical parameters have been shown by some investigators, further studies are needed to establish whether molecular data are clinically relevant for prognosis, diagnosis and therapy. The sensitivity of molecular genetic techniques combined with the relatively easy access to primary tumor cells (by biopsy or cytology) make this tumor type an ideal system for further investigation of the molecular genetic basis in the development of human neoplasms.