What the Study Is About 

This study focuses on a serious form of bladder cancer called metastatic urothelial cancer, or mUC. This type of cancer has spread beyond the bladder to other parts of the body. While current treatments can sometimes shrink tumors, they often stop working after a while because the cancer becomes resistant to treatment. The researchers want to better understand why this happens and how the cancer behaves in different parts of the body. 

What the Study Proposes to Do 

Traditionally, doctors have had to perform invasive biopsies to study cancer, which can be painful, expensive, and risky for patients. This team has created a new, less invasive method that studies cancer DNA found in the bloodstream. Cancer cells naturally release pieces of their DNA into the blood, and this DNA carries important clues about how the cancer is growing and changing. By using advanced computer technology, the researchers can now analyze these DNA pieces from a simple blood draw to learn about the cancer’s behavior. 

The team has already collected blood samples and medical information from hundreds of patients with metastatic bladder cancer. They plan to compare the results from their new blood-based test with traditional tissue samples to make sure it is accurate. They will also study whether the DNA patterns in the blood can show how aggressive a patient’s cancer is, where the cancer has spread, and how it might resist treatment. 

Why This Research Is Important 

If this new approach works, it could transform how doctors study and treat bladder cancer. Instead of needing invasive biopsies, patients could have their cancer monitored through routine blood draws. This would make it easier, safer, and faster to track how the disease is changing in real time. The findings could also help scientists identify new treatment targets and better predict how each patient’s cancer will respond to therapy. 

In the long term, this research could open the door to more personalized cancer care, where treatments are matched to the unique DNA patterns of each patient’s cancer. By sharing their results with the wider medical community, the researchers hope to speed up new discoveries and make these technologies available to all patients battling bladder cancer. 

1. RBB2/HER2 Alterations in ctDNA and Metachronous Tissues of Patients with Metastatic Urothelial Cancer. Vandekerkhove G, Murtha AJ, Müller DC, Stephenson M, Rostin K, Munzur AD, VasquezRios C, Nikkola J, Sipola J, Annala M, Herberts C, Fung E, Atwal J, Al-Subaie S, Parekh K, Bernales CQ, Donnellan G, Finch D, Noonan K, Ko JJ, Ozgun G, Nappi L, Kollmannsberger C, Lavoie JM,Parimi S, Todenhöfer T, Ost P, Wang G, Black PC, Maurice-Dror C, Chi KN, Eigl BJ, Wyatt AW. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Sep 2;31(17):3725-3741. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-3912
2. Plasma Cell-Free DNA Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Profiling Depicts Phenotypic and Clinical Heterogeneity in Advanced Prostate Cancer. Sipola J, Munzur AD, Kwan EM, Seo CCY, Hauk BJ, Parekh K, Liao YJR, Bernales CQ, Donnellan G, Bloise I, Fung E, Ng SWS, Wang G, Vandekerkhove G, Nykter M, Annala M, Maurice-Dror C, Chi KN, Herberts C, Wyatt AW, Takeda DY. Cancer Res. 2025 Feb 17;85(4):791-807. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-24-2052

None Reported as of August 2025

Bernie Eigl, MD; BC Cancer Vancouver Center
Peter Black, MD; University of British Columbia
David Takeda, MD, PhD, National Institutes of Health