Funda Vakar-Lopez, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Washington

Location: UWMC, NE110 conference room

Summary: Why Attend?
"Is this atypical urothelium neoplastic?" "Is the tumor invading muscularis porpria or muscularis mucosa?" Pathologists struggle with these questions regularly. These questions are just a few examples of the many aspects of bladder carcinoma that could be challenging. Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is the second most common GU cancer with significant morbidity and mortality and limited treatment options. Despite its prevalence and significant negative impact on health, bladder cancer has been relatively understudied. The challenges include morphologic and clinical heterogeneity of the disease and subsequent varied disease outcomes. While the association of certain carcinogens in tumor development is well established, the mechanisms of their effect have not been identified. Developing informative animal models has the potential to improve our understanding of bladder cancer progression and its treatment. In this presentation, I shall review our current and future efforts at UW, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance addressing these challenges.