Department of Urology, University of Regensburg, Caritas St. Josef Medical Center, Landshuterstraße 65, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

If you searched the pub med today for articles related to „prostate cancer“, you would retrieve some 83,000 hits. If you continued to do the same for „bladder cancer“, you would get but half of that, roughly 48,000. Almost every program booklet of any major urological convention mirrors this phenomenon, as scientific sessions and state-of-the-art lectures on prostate cancer usually exceed bladder cancer by a comparable ratio.     

Does this mean, that prostate cancer is twice as important for urologists as bladder cancer? There is no doubt that prostatic neoplasia is of massive epidemiological importance, has an enormous impact on individual patients and is of outstanding molecular complexity. However, bladder cancer also features remarkable oncological challenges to everyone involved in urooncological care and research despite the considerably diminished attention within the urological community and beyond compared to other major cancers. 

The epidemiological burden of bladder cancer is considerable; while its incidence ranges but 7^th in male and 11^th in female among all cancers, its prevalence is remarkable, as many patients are faced with recurrence despite long-term survival rendering bladder cancer the most costly malignancy among all. And this is just one of many pressing issues about this disease. Its origin is poorly understood, screening programs repeatedly discussed, and molecular characteristics become more complex and fascinating with every novel discovery. To name but two further aspects, most tumours are completely removed upon initial presentation allowing bladder preservation, yet the majority will recur by a mechanism poorly understood. Furthermore most tumours will feature a rather mild tumour biology at first, while a significant fraction that cannot be distinguished reliably to date will progress to metastatic states quite swiftly defying cure.

So what is the point in a distinct journal on bladder cancer?

All the aforementioned and yet unmentioned aspects require our constant attention and debate and certainly warrant more visibility of the issues at hand. In analogy to journals solely for prostate related issues it is thus our intention to offer an efficient, peer-reviewed platform for basic and clinical research on bladder cancer and for focussed debates. Our editorial board consists of international well-established and also junior experts. We are confident to attract contributions from around the globe and thus to spur progress in bladder cancer related research. 

Help us to intensify bladder cancer research. Contribute your data and debates to “Debates on Bladder Cancer”.

PD Dr. Maximilian Burger

MD, PhD, Ass. Professor 

Department of Urology

University of Regensburg

Caritas St. Josef Medical Center

Landshuterstraße 65

93053 Regensburg, Germany

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