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Bladder Cancer Biobank, Canada

Objective: Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in North America. Due to its high recurrence and mortality rates, BC is one of the most expensive and hard-to treat cancer as treatment options are limited and has not improved for decades. Radical cystectomy (RC), the conventional treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), seriously impact patient quality of life (QoL) and is associated with a 5-year survival of only 50%. Importantly, >40% of the patients are not surgically fit and will die without receiving any definitive therapy. While radiation therapy (RT) represents an alternative, efficacy still needs to be improved as 30% of patients will require surgery and half will develop metastasis. At the molecular level, MIBC is a diverse disease, and it has been classified into molecular subtypes with heterogeneous clinical outcomes, making difficult to consistently diagnose patients and predict therapeutic prognosis. Thus, there is a growing need to identify predictive and prognostic biomarkers that can be used to efficiently improve the management of BC. In this regard, we have already established a REB approval biorepository for longitudinal collection of biological samples (tissues, blood, urine and stool) from BC patients, before and throughout multimodality treatments (neoadjuvant, surgery, chemoradiation, and immunotherapy).