12th Annual Meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) Bladder Cancer Sessions I and II summary report

Health care reform with the Affordable Care Act aims to control health care costs, in part, through the use of comparative effectiveness research and quality of care measures. Bladder cancer is one of the most expensive malignancies to manage as related to the need for continuous monitoring and the treatment of recurrence. The use of clinical practice guidelines relying on evidence based medicine in the management of patients with bladder cancer will help to ensure quality of care and cost containment. The goal of session I was to provide a thorough discussion of the quality of care and cost issues related to bladder cancer including an examination of levels of evidence, implementation and compliance with clinical practice guidelines, the use of standardized reporting methodologies, and comparative effectiveness research. Bladder cancer is a common malignancy with a variable biology and natural history. Although the majority of patients are diagnosed with non-invasive disease, approximately 20-40% of patients either present with or develop more advanced disease. The 5-year survival for patients with lymph node involvement at the time of surgery is 20-30% and patients with metastatic disease treated with chemotherapy have a median survival of only 15 months. Novel approaches for the management of patients with bladder cancer are desperately needed. The goal of session II was to review the current state of translational research in bladder cancer as related to both early and late stage disease including a discussion of novel molecular targets and targeted therapeutics, pharmacogenomics to predict response to therapy, and exploring the role for agents targeting angiogenesis.