VI-RADS system and levels of tumor microenvironment biomarkers in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer when choosing treatment tactics

Objective: to identify the role simultaneous use of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS) and the assessment of serum levels of several mediators and growth factors for the evaluation of metastatic process and disease stage in patients with bladder cancer.
Materials and methods. This retrospective study included 85 patients with histologically verified transitional cell (urothelial) bladder carcinoma (stages рТа—TINOMO. [)T2NOMO, рТ3—4NN0M0, and [)T2—4N1—3M1) and 20 healthy controls. In addition to general clinical examinations, all patients have undergone preoperative diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis with background suppression. We calculated the diffusion coefficient and included it into the VI-RADS protocol. All study participants were also tested for their serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-8 (IL-8), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MSP-1), interferon γ (IFN-γ), transforming growth factor β1 (TGF- β1), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results and conclusion. We found that the preoperative use of VI-RADS together with the assessment of serum levels of pro-inflammatory mediators, colony-stimulating factors, and growth factors in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer provide additional information about the activity of malignant transformation in tumor tissue and tumor spread. Their simultaneous use during the examination of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer is a promising diagnostic approach to monitor treatment response.

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