Individual risk assessment in bladder cancer patients based on a multi-marker panel

Urine biomarkers in bladder cancer - current status and future perspectives

Urine markers to detect bladder cancer have been the subject of research for decades. The idea that urine - being in continuous contact with tumour tissue - should provide a vector of tumour information remains an attractive concept. Research on this topic has resulted in a complex landscape of many different urine markers with varying degrees of clinical validation. These markers range from cell-based assays to proteins, transcriptomic markers and genomic signatures, with a clear trend towards multiplex assays. Unfortunately, the number of different urine markers and the efforts in research and development of clinical grade assays are not reflected in the use of these markers in clinical practice, which is currently limited. Numerous prospective trials are in progress with the aim of increasing the quality of evidence about urinary biomarkers in bladder cancer to achieve guideline implementation. The current research landscape suggests a division of testing approaches. Some efforts are directed towards addressing the limitations of current assays to improve the performance of urine markers for a straightforward detection of bladder cancer. Additionally, comprehensive genetic analyses are emerging based on advances in next-generation sequencing and are expected to substantially affect the potential application of urine markers in bladder cancer.

Urinary biomarkers for bladder cancer diagnosis and NMIBC follow-up: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Bladder cancer detection and follow-up is based on cystoscopy and/or cytology, but it remains imperfect and invasive. Current research focuses on diagnostic biomarkers that could improve bladder cancer detection and follow-up by discriminating patients at risk of aggressive cancer who need confirmatory TURBT (Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumour) from patients at no risk of aggressive cancer who could be spared from useless explorations.

OBJECTIVE

To perform a systematic review of data on the clinical validity and clinical utility of eleven urinary biomarkers (VisioCyt^®, Xpert^®Bladder, BTA stat^®, BTA TRAK™, NMP22 BC^®, NMP22^® BladderChek^® Test, ImmunoCyt™/uCyt1+™, UroVysion Bladder Cancer Kit^®, Cxbladder, ADXBLADDER, Urodiag^®) for bladder cancer diagnosis and for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) follow-up.

METHODS

All available studies on the 11 biomarkers published between May 2010 and March 2021 and present in MEDLINE^® were reviewed. The main endpoints were clinical performance for bladder cancer detection, recurrence or progression during NMIBC monitoring, and additional value compared to cytology and/or cystoscopy.

RESULTS

Most studies on urinary biomarkers had a prospective design and high level of evidence. However, their results should be interpreted with caution given the heterogeneity among studies. Most of the biomarkers under study displayed higher detection sensitivity compared with cytology, but lower specificity. Some biomarkers may have clinical utility for NMIBC surveillance in patients with negative or equivocal cystoscopy or negative or atypical urinary cytology findings, and also for recurrence prediction.

CONCLUSION

Urinary biomarkers might have a complementary place in bladder cancer diagnosis and NMIBC surveillance. However, their clinical benefit remains to be confirmed.

Diagnostic Performance of Biomarkers for Bladder Cancer Detection Suitable for Community and Primary Care Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Evidence on the use of biomarkers to detect bladder cancer in the general population is scarce. This study aimed to systematically review evidence on the diagnostic performance of biomarkers which might be suitable for use in community and primary care settings [PROSPERO Registration: CRD42021258754]. Database searches on MEDLINE and EMBASE from January 2000 to May 2022 resulted in 4914 unique citations, 44 of which met inclusion criteria. Included studies reported on 112 biomarkers and combinations. Heterogeneity of designs, populations and outcomes allowed for the meta-analysis of three biomarkers identified in at least five studies (NMP-22, UroVysion, uCyt+). These three biomarkers showed similar discriminative ability (adjusted AUC estimates ranging from 0.650 to 0.707), although for NMP-22 and UroVysion there was significant unexplained heterogeneity between included studies. Narrative synthesis revealed the potential of these biomarkers for use in the general population based on their reported clinical utility, including effects on clinicians, patients, and the healthcare system. Finally, we identified some promising novel biomarkers and biomarker combinations (N < 3 studies for each biomarker/combination) with negative predictive values of ≥90%. These biomarkers have potential for use as a triage tool in community and primary care settings for reducing unnecessary specialist referrals. Despite promising emerging evidence, further validation studies in the general population are required at different stages within the diagnostic pathway.

Review of non-invasive urinary biomarkers in bladder cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is the sixth-most prevalent cancer. The standard diagnostic tool of BC is cystoscopy, whereas cystoscopy has several disadvantages in terms of symptomatic invasiveness and operator-dependency. The urinary markers are attractive because the testing is non-invasive and cost-efficient, and sample collection is easy. Urinary marker is thereby a good tool to detect exfoliated tumor cell in the urine samples for the diagnosis and therapeutic surveillance of BC to supplement the limitations of the cystoscopy. However, they are not recommended as a population-based screening tool because of the low rate of BC prevalence. Although both cystoscopy and urine cytology improve BC diagnostic power, the field still needs additional non-invasive, cost-effective, and highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tools. Various urinary markers with different mechanisms and different targets have been developed and under investigation in these days. However, the accuracy of the urinary marker including its sensitivity and specificity is the most important factor for the diagnosis and surveillance in cancer that this review deals with multiple FDA-approved and non-FDA approved commercialized urinary markers with their accuracy in different purposes for BC. We then discuss more about the potential candidate targets for the future urinary markers in BC.

Urinary biomarkers in bladder cancer: A review of the current landscape and future directions

AIM

This narrative review aims to describe established and emerging urinary biomarkers in the diagnosis and surveillance of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. It provides a comprehensive account of classical, FDA-approved protein biomarkers and discusses their limitations. Further, we discuss the role that epigenetic, genetic, and exosomal markers can play to enhance sensitivity and specificity of the available tests.

BACKGROUND

The initial diagnosis and surveillance of bladder cancer involves a combination of cystoscopy, upper urinary tract imaging, and urine cytology. Despite high specificity, cytology is limited by low sensitivity. There are currently 6 urinary assays approved by the FDA to enhance diagnosis and surveillance of bladder cancer. While these have improved diagnosis and surveillance when combined with cytology, these tests are still not sufficiently sensitive and false positives often occur in benign conditions which result in inflammation of the urinary tract. Advancements in laboratory techniques have produced significant advancements in epigenetic and genetic markers, as well as extracellular vesicles, with DNA- and RNA-based markers dominating the research in this area in recent years.

METHODS

We identified relevant published data, using the PubMed/ Medline search engines as well as Google Scholar. We performed an online search using the terms "bladder cancer", "non-muscle invasive bladder cancer" in combination with "urine biomarkers" and limited articles in English published up to February 2020. This review consolidated on all available narrative and systematic reviews published in the 5 years in this field, while also reviewing the original data of each clinical trial or observational study which led to the development of the biomarkers.

CONCLUSION

The development of laboratory techniques and understanding urine-based biomarkers in BC has fuelled the use of noninvasive liquid-based biomarkers to complement urine cytology. Nonetheless, none are sufficiently effective when used in isolation, and cytology remains the gold standard in many practices. Future efforts will be focused on using these markers in combination as a predictive signature, and moving on to validating them for use in everyday clinical practice.

Proteomic research and diagnosis in bladder cancer: state of the art review

Purpose:

Proteomic biomarkers have been emerging as alternative methods to the gold standard procedures of cystoscopy and urine cytology in the diagnosis and surveillance of bladder cancer (BC). This review aims to update the state of the art of proteomics research and diagnosis in BC.

Materials and Methods:

We reviewed the current literature related to BC research on urinary, tissue, blood and cell line proteomics, using the Pubmed database.

Findings:

Two urinary protein biomarkers are FDA-approved (NMP22® and BTA® tests), only if performed along with cystoscopy for surveillance after initial diagnosis, but not in the primary diagnostic setting due to high false-positive rates in case of infections, stones and hematuria. There are a great number of non-FDA approved proteins being studied, with good preliminary results; panels of proteins seem valuable tools to be refined in ongoing trials. Blood proteins are a bigger challenge, because of the complexity of the serum protein profile and the scarcity of blood proteomic studies in BC. Previous studies with the BC tissue proteome do not correlate well with the urinary proteome, likely due to the tumor heterogeneity. Cell line proteomic research helps in the understanding of basic mechanisms that drive BC development and progression; the main difficulty is culturing low-grade tumors in vitro, which represents the majority of BC tumors in clinical practice.

Conclusion:

Protein biomarkers have promising value in the diagnosis, surveillance and prognostic of BC. Urine is the most appropriate body fluid for biomarker research in BC due to its easiness of sampling, stability and enrichment of shed and secreted tumor-specific proteins. Panels of biomarkers may exhibit higher sensitivity than single proteins in the diagnosis of BC at larger populations due to clinical and tumor heterogeneity. Prospective clinical trials are warranted to validate the relevance of proteomic data in the clinical management of BC.

Comparison of the diagnostic performance of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22), and their combination model in bladder carcinoma detection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Emerging studies reported that combination of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP22) could increase the sensitivity and specificity of bladder carcinoma (BC) management. Nevertheless, the reports remain inconsistent. This meta-analysis was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic performance of FISH, NMP22, and their combination model in BC.

Materials and methods

A systematic literature search was carried out in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang database dated up to October 2018. Suitable studies were identified and raw data were extracted. Meta-analysis was conducted to calculate the global sensitivities, specificities, likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and the areas under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves for FISH, NMP22, and their combination model, separately. All the meta-analysis estimates were derived using STATA (version 12.0) and MetaDisc (version 1.4) software packages.

Results

Seven eligible studies were included for analysis. The global sensitivities with 95% CI for FISH, NMP22, and their combination model were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.75–0.83), 0.76 (95% CI: 0.71–0.81), and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.75–0.88); specificities were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.76–0.91), 0.70 (95% CI: 0.55–0.81), and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.70–0.97); DORs were 22.215 (95% CI: 10.695–46.144), 7.365 (95% CI: 3.986–13.610), and 41.940 (95% CI: 13.546–129.853); and the areas under the SROC curves were 0.86 (95% CI: 0.82–0.88), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.76–0.83), and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.87–0.92).

Conclusion

Our systematic review implied that the diagnostic performance of combination model of FISH plus NMP22 may outperform FISH or NMP22 alone in BC detection.

Can urinary biomarkers replace cystoscopy?

PURPOSE

Diagnosis and follow-up in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) rely on cystoscopy and urine cytology. The aim of this review paper is to give an update on urinary biomarkers and their diagnosis and surveillance potential. Besides FDA-approved markers, recent approaches like DNA methylation assays, mRNA gene expression assays and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are evaluated to assess whether replacing cystoscopy with urine markers is a potential scenario for the future.

METHODS

We performed a non-systematic review of current literature without time period restriction using the National Library of Medicine database ( http://ww.pubmed.gov ). The search included the following key words in different combinations: "urothelial carcinoma", "urinary marker", "hematuria", "cytology" and "bladder cancer". Further, references were extracted from identified articles. The results were evaluated regarding their clinical relevance and study quality.

RESULTS

Currently, replacing cystoscopy with available urine markers is not recommended by international guidelines. For FDA-approved markers, prospective randomized trials are lacking. Newer approaches focusing on molecular, genomic and transcriptomic aberrations are promising with good accuracies. Furthermore, these assays may provide additional molecular information to guide individualized surveillance strategies and therapy. Currently ongoing prospective trials will determine if cystoscopy reduction is feasible.

CONCLUSION

Urinary markers represent a non-invasive approach for molecular characterization of the disease. Although fully replacing cystoscopy seems unrealistic in the near future, enhancing the current gold standard by additional molecular information is feasible. A reliable classification and differentiation between aggressive and nonaggressive tumors by applying DNA, mRNA, and cfDNA assays may change surveillance to help reduce cystoscopies.

Review of the Clinical Approaches to the Use of Urine-based Tumor Markers in Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer is a common disease with a stable incidence for the past few decades despite advancements in molecular and genetic determinants of cancer development and progression. Cystoscopy remains the standard for detection and surveillance of bladder cancer, but it is an invasive and potentially costly procedure. With the knowledge of molecular alterations associated with bladder cancer numerous urine-based tumor markers have become commercially available. These urine markers have been evaluated in all clinical scenarios for the detection of bladder cancer including screening, hematuria, atypical cytology evaluation, and surveillance, but given the relative lack of impactful trials they are not routinely utilized. The efforts to develop markers with increased sensitivity to replace cystoscopy for the detection of bladder cancer have thus far been unsuccessful as well. This review addresses role of urine markers for screening, detection, and surveillance of bladder cancer.

A Systematic Review of the Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Urinary Protein Biomarkers in Urothelial Bladder Cancer

For over 80 years, cystoscopy has remained the gold-standard for detecting tumours of the urinary bladder. Since bladder tumours have a tendency to recur and progress, many patients are subjected to repeated cystoscopies during long-term surveillance, with the procedure being both unpleasant for the patient and expensive for healthcare providers. The identification and validation of bladder tumour specific molecular markers in urine could enable tumour detection and reduce reliance on cystoscopy, and numerous classes of biomarkers have been studied. Proteins represent the most intensively studied class of biomolecule in this setting. As an aid to researchers searching for better urinary biomarkers, we report a comprehensive systematic review of the literature and a searchable database of proteins that have been investigated to date. Our objective was to classify these proteins as: 1) those with robustly characterised sensitivity and specificity for bladder cancer detection; 2) those that show potential but further investigation is required; 3) those unlikely to warrant further investigation; and 4) those investigated as prognostic markers. This work should help to prioritise certain biomarkers for rigorous validation, whilst preventing wasted effort on proteins that have shown no association whatsoever with the disease, or only modest biomarker performance despite large-scale efforts at validation.

FGFR3 and Cyclin D3 as urine biomarkers of bladder cancer recurrence

AIM

To assess the diagnostic performance of FGFR3 and Cyclin D3 urinary protein levels in detecting bladder cancer recurrence.

PATIENTS & METHODS

Urine of 321 patients in follow-up for bladder cancer and 150 non-neoplastic urine controls was included. Cytology, cystoscopy and FGFR3 and Cyclin D3 expression by western blot were performed.

RESULTS

One hundred ten (34.3%) patients had evidence of tumor recurrence. The sensitivity and specificity of cytology/cystoscopy was 80 and 84%, and for FGFR3/Cyclin D3 was of 73 and 90%.

CONCLUSION

Combined urinary FGFR3/Cyclin D3 expression shows improved detection rates for bladder cancer recurrence with high specificity and sensitivity, and within the same range of detection shown by cystoscopy, therefore supporting its potential use as noninvasive diagnostic biomarker for bladder cancer recurrence.

[Non-muscle-invasive high-grade bladder cancer]

BACKGROUND

Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer with a low-grade differentiation represents a special challenge.

METHOD

Although urine cytology is still the most reliable and effective urine-based marker and there are no substantial novel aspects in this field, photodynamic diagnostics have the most important value in transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) of high-grade T1 tumors and new techniques, such as hybrid knife TURB are coming up. The histopathological assessment of T1 tumors can be supplemented by a description of the exact penetration depth, so-called substaging and the invasion pattern.

RESULTS

Intravesicle therapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guèrin (BCG) represents the gold standard and a pillar of bladder-preserving therapy and should be planned as maintenance therapy for at least 1 year. With the right risk constellation cystectomy is a safe and proven concept for high-grade bladder cancer, even without proof of muscle invasion.

Prognostic relevance of positive urine markers in patients with negative cystoscopy during surveillance of bladder cancer

Background

The role of urine markers in the surveillance of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is discussed extensively. In case of negative cystoscopy the additional prognostic value of these markers has not been clearly defined yet. The present study is the first systematic approach to directly compare the ability of a urine marker panel to predict the risk of recurrence and progression in bladder cancer (BC) patients with no evidence of relapse during surveillance for NMIBC.

Methods

One hundred fourteen patients who underwent urine marker testing during surveillance for NMIBC and who had no evidence of BC recurrence were included. For all patients cytology, Fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization (FISH), immunocytology (uCyt+) and Nuclear matrix protein 22 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (NMP22) were performed. All patients completed at least 24 months of endoscopic and clinical follow-up of after inclusion.

Results

Within 24 months of follow-up, 38 (33.0%) patients experienced disease recurrence and 11 (9.8%) progression. Recurrence rates in patients with positive vs. negative cytology, FISH, uCyt+ and NMP22 were 52.6% vs. 21.9% (HR = 3.9; 95% CI 1.75-9.2; p < 0.001), 47.6% vs. 25.0% (HR 2.7; 1.2-6.2; p = 0.01), 43.8% vs. 22.4% (HR 3.3; 1.5-7.6; p = 0.003) and 43.8% vs. 16.7% (HR 4.2; 1.7-10.8; p = 0.001). In patients with negative cytology, a positive NMP22 test was associated with a shorter time to recurrence (p = 0.01), whereas FISH or uCyt+ were not predictive of recurrence in these patients. In the group of patients with negative cytology and negative NMP22, only 13.5% and 5.4% developed recurrence and progression after 24 months.

Conclusions

Patients with positive urine markers at time of negative cystoscopy are at increased risk of recurrence and progression. In patients with negative cytology, only NMP22 is predictive for recurrence. Patients with negative marker combinations including NMP22 harbour a low risk of recurrence. Therefore, the endoscopic follow-up regimen may be attenuated in this group of patients.

Novel biomarkers to predict response and prognosis in localized bladder cancer

This review summarizes recent developments in diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Although the number of new biomarkers increases continuously, none are included in practice guidelines. Most NMIBC biomarkers show a higher sensitivity than urinary cytology, but lower specificity. Some protein and chromosome markers have been approved for screening and follow-up of patients in combination with cystoscopy. The long interval required for validation, testing, and approval of the assays and the lack of standardization could explain present issues in biomarker research. To enhance the development of new biomarkers, a more structured approach is required.

Considerations on the use of urine markers in the management of patients with high-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer

OBJECTIVE

Diagnosis and surveillance of high risk non muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) represent specific challenges to urologists. In contrast to low/intermediate risk tumors, these tumors recur more frequently. A significant number will eventually progress to muscle-invasive bladder cancer, a life threatening disease requiring extensive therapeutic efforts. Although clinical risk factors have been identified that may predict tumor recurrence and progression, additional biomarkers are desperately needed to improve tumor diagnosis and guide clinical management of these patients. In this article, the role of molecular urine markers in the management of high risk NMIBC is analyzed.

METHODS

In this context, several potential indications (diagnostic, prognostic, predictive) were identified and the requirements for molecular markers were defined. In addition, current knowledge within the different indications was summarized.

RESULTS

Significant progress has been made in the last decade studying the impact of molecular urine markers in patients with high risk NMIBC.

CONCLUSIONS

Although we may not be ready for the inclusion of molecular markers in clinical decision-making, and many questions remain unanswered, recent studies have identified situations in which the use of molecular markers in particular in high grade tumors may prove beneficial for patient diagnosis and surveillance.

Urinary protein biomarker panel for the detection of recurrent bladder cancer

BACKGROUND

Up to 70% of patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) experience disease recurrence, making it one of the most prevalent cancers in the United States. The purpose of this study was to test the performance of a multiplex urinary biomarker assay for the monitoring of voided urine for recurrent bladder cancer.

METHODS

This retrospective, multicenter study included a total of 125 subjects with a history of bladder cancer. Voided urine specimens were collected before procedure from these subjects (53 with confirmed tumor recurrence and 72 with confirmed non-tumor recurrence) for analysis. A prediction rule generated from the performance characteristics of 10 single biomarkers (IL8, MMP9, MMP10, SERPINA1, VEGFA, ANG, CA9, APOE, SERPINE1, and SDC1) was measured using ELISA. The diagnostic performance of the biomarker panel was assessed using receiver operator curves (ROC) and descriptive statistical values (e.g., sensitivity and specificity).

RESULTS

The combination of all 10 biomarkers outperformed any single biomarker with a calculated AUROC for the diagnostic panel of 0.904 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.853-0.956]. The multiplex assay achieved an overall sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 88% for recurrent bladder cancer and significantly outperformed the Urovysion cytogenetic assay (sensitivity 42%, specificity 94%) and voided urinary cytology (sensitivity 33%, specificity 90%).

CONCLUSIONS

A diagnostic panel of 10 urinary biomarkers that accurately detects primary bladder cancer also performs well for the detection of recurrent bladder cancer.

IMPACT

The identification of a reliable urine-based surveillance and detection assay would be of benefit to both patients and the healthcare system.

Evaluation of a new quantitative point-of-care test platform for urine-based detection of bladder cancer

OBJECTIVE

Several commercial point-of-care (POC) tests are available for urine-based detection of bladder cancer (BC). However, these tests are restricted to dichotomized results (positive or negative), which limits their diagnostic value. Quantitative protein-based tests offer improved risk stratification but require complex methods restricted to specialized centers. Recently, the first quantitative POC system based on the detection of cytokeratin fragments became available. The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of this quantitative POC test.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 198 patients having symptoms suspicious for BC were included. All patients received urethrocystoscopy and upper-tract imaging. Urine samples were analyzed by the urine BC antigen (UBC) rapid POC system and evaluated both visually and quantitatively using the concile Omega 100 POC reader. For visual evaluation, different thresholds of band intensity for considering a test positive were applied. Moreover, the UBC enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), urine cytology, and the nuclear matrix protein 22 BladderChek were performed. Sensitivities and specifities were calculated by contingency analyses. Optimal cutoffs of quantitative tests were determined by receiver operating characteristic curves.

RESULTS

A total of 61 patients (30.8%) were diagnosed with BC. Visual evaluation of the UBC revealed sensitivities of 38.1% to 71.4% with corresponding specificities of 54.1% to 89.1%, dependent on the threshold of band intensity applied. The quantitative UBC rapid showed a sensitivity of 60.7% and a specificity of 70.1% at optimal cutoff (area under the curve = 0.68). A constant increase of both the probability of BC and high-risk BC with increasing UBC rapid values was observed. UBC concentrations determined by the reader significantly correlated with the UBC ELISA (P<0.001). The UBC ELISA, the nuclear matrix protein22 BladderChek and cytology showed sensitivities of 48.3%, 16.4%, and 51.7% with specificities of 71.3%, 95.3%, and 78.1%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The UBC rapid in combination with a quantitative POC-reader system for the first time enables quantitative determination of a BC marker under POC conditions. Diagnostic accuracy is at least equivalent to elaborate ELISA-based measurement. The quantitative use of the UBC rapid test facilitates risk prediction compared with conventional nonquantitative dichotomized POC testing.

Bladder cancer detection and monitoring: assessment of urine- and blood-based marker tests

Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, but the treatment and management of this disease can be very successful if the disease is detected early. The development of molecular assays that could diagnose bladder cancer accurately, and at an early stage, would be a significant advance. Ideally, such molecular assays would be applicable to non-invasively obtained body fluids, and be designed not only for diagnosis but also for monitoring disease recurrence and response to treatment. In this article, we assess the performance of current diagnostic assays for bladder cancer and discuss some of the emerging biomarkers that could be developed to augment current bladder cancer detection strategies.

[Clinical use of the ImmunoCyt/uCyt+ and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) tests for urothelial carcinomas]

In recent decades years, we have witnessed the propagation and marketing of numerous diagnostic tests capable of detecting, in the urine of patients, the presence of urothelial tumor markers. Among None of the different markers studied to date , no one has been able to meet all the requirements of the ideal marker. We present and discuss below we discuss the results reported in the literature of about two tests approved by the Food and Drug Administration [ImmunoCyt/uCyt+ and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH)], which have been and commercially available for about 10 years., ImmunoCyt/uCyt + and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH).