We are investigating multiple markers in human breast and bladder cancers. Our aim is to identify markers that are clinically relevant and that contribute to our understanding of the disease process in individual patients. Good markers accurately assess the malignant potential of a cancer in an individual patient. Thus, they help identify those cancers that will recur, and they may be used to predict more accurately time to recurrence, response to treatment, and overall prognosis. Therapy and patient management may then be optimized to the individual patient. Relevant markers reflect the underlying pathobiology of individual tumors. As a tissue undergoes transformation from benign to malignant, the cells lose their differentiated phenotype. As a generalization, the more the cellular phenotype, cellular proliferation and cellular genotype depart from normal, the more advanced is the tumor in its biological evolution and the more likely it is that the patient has a poor prognosis. We use three studies to illustrate our investigation of potential tumor markers. Breast cancers are labeled in vivo with 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) to give a direct measure of the tumor labeling index. Bladder cancers are analyzed immunocytochemically using an antibody against proliferation. Finally, the techniques of molecular genetics are used to detect allelic loss in breast cancers. 6 refs., 3 figs
