N-ras Gene Mutations in Kashmiri Urothelial Cell Carcinomas

Urinary bladder (or bladder) cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, with the highest incidences in industrialized countries (Pelucchi et al 2006). It is the fourth most incident cancer in males and ninth most in females accounting for more than 67,000 new cases per year in United States (Jemal et al 2007), where the annual age adjusted incidence rate for men is approximately 32 per 100,000 (Jemal et al 2005). Urothelium cancers account for 5.6% of male and 1.8% of female cancers in India with an actual crude rate (ACR) incidence of about 1 in 174 in men and 1 in 561in women (Kamarana et al., 2000). From an epidemiological survey (Dhar et al 1993) in Kashmir, bladder cancer has an annual incidence of 9.7 (2.5%) ranking 9th in all types of cancers. This was a partial presentation of bladder cancer incidence as the survey was done in a single hospital catering the needs of 1/3 of the population. Presently bladder cancer is showing an alarming increase in Kashmir as evidenced by the fact that we could record and collect samples from 55 patients from early March 2008-2009. Histologically, more than 90% of bladder-cancer cases are transitional cell (urothelial) carcinoma, approximately 5% are squamous cell carcinoma, and less than 2% are adenocarcinoma. Nearly 80% of patients who initially