links for 2010-02-21
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Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is unique among epithelial carcinomas in its divergent pathways of tumorigenesis. Low-grade papillary tumours rarely become muscle-invasive and they frequently harbour gene mutations that constitutively activate the receptor tyrosine kinase-Ras pathway. By contrast, most high-grade invasive tumours progress to life-threatening metastases and have defects in the p53 and the retinoblastoma protein pathways. Correcting pathway-specific defects represents an attractive strategy for the molecular therapy of urothelial carcinomas.
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CD47, a protein that provides an inhibitory signal for macrophage phagocytosis, is highly expressed in bladder tumor-initiating cells compared with the rest of the tumor. Blockade of CD47 by a mAb resulted in macrophage engulfment of bladder cancer cells in vitro.