Current concept for tertiary lymphoid structures in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder: a literature review and our experience.

Abstract

Bladder carcinoma (BC) is one of the most common malignancies of the urinary system in developed countries, with a high number of recurrences. The secondary lymphoid organs (SLO) are crucial for initiating the adaptive immune response. They are developed as a part of a genetically preprogrammed process during embryogenesis. However, SLO's organogenesis can be reduplicated de novo in other tissues by a process termed lymphoid neo-genesis, giving rise to tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS). These well-organized lymphoid structures in cancer are essential modulators of cancer immunologic response, and the histological examination of TLS gave a new strategy for cancer immunotherapy. This review explores the biological and histological characteristics of TLS in muscle non-invasive and invasive BC.