Metadherin (MTDH) has been identified as an important oncogene in carcinogenesis, tumor progression and metastasis in numerous malignancies, through signal transduction pathways. MTDH is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in cancers. The present systematic review was performed to search for studies regarding MTDH and prostate, bladder and kidney cancer using several databases and the eligible studies were reviewed. MTDH expression was found to significantly increase in prostate, bladder and kidney cancers, not only in clinical tissue samples, but also in cancer cell lines. Reviewing the clinical and statistical analysis revealed that MTDH may be involved in urologic cancer progression, metastasis and prognosis. MTDH may be an independent or one of the cofactors in urologic cancers for prediction of patient survival, and may be involved in potential anticancer strategies. MTDH may be associated with several signal transduction pathways in urologic cancers, indicating latent targets to develop anticancer therapeutic strategy. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.
Keywords: bladder; cancer; kidney; metadherin; prostate.