The prognostic value of basal DNA damage level in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients affected by bladder cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies of the urinary tract, with the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers, due to the high rate of recurrences requiring continuous surveillance. An early diagnosis is essential to improve survival of patients with BC. Noninvasive and sensitive molecular biomarkers are needed to improve current strategies for the detection and monitoring of BC. Previous studies suggested that elevated DNA damage levels and suboptimal nucleotide excision DNA repair (NER) may be associated with BC.