It has become increasingly clear that the development of cancer, a multifactorial disease, cannot be explained by a single molecule or gene mutation. As a new discipline, metabolomics focuses on the body's metabolite changes, and attempts to find differences to explain the development of cancer; it has proven to be effective and credible. Metabolic studies of bladder cancer (BCa) lag behind those of other tumors. This review systematically outlines the specific process of metabolomics and the use of metabolomics in BCa studies in recent years. We have reviewed the in vitro cell line, bladder tumor tissue and biofluid (urine, plasma and serum) studies used in metabolomics analyses of BCa. The advantages and drawbacks of the use of different samples were compared. Based on the available studies, we have further described the aberrant metabolic pathways of BCa and have suggested some metabolites that may be potential biomarkers for BCa detection.
Keywords: biomarkers; bladder cancer; metabolic pathways; metabolomics.