Diagnosis of bladder cancer is primarily made based on clinical presentation and then by direct visualization with cystoscopy. Despite the massive investments recently made to identify urinary-based assays that are able to diagnosis urothelial carcinoma, urine cytology and cystoscopy still remain the gold standard. Recently proof of principle studies have shown that noninvasive urine-based metabolomics, using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), may be able to accurately diagnosis bladder cancer. This review discusses the published studies investigating metabolomics and bladder cancer and the future potential of this developing field.
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