Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41605210›Full record

ArticleCell2026

Field-effect-informed urine liquid biopsy for bladder cancer.

William Y Shi, Kevin J Liu, Mohammad S Esfahani, Kathleen E Mach, Nick A Phillips, Diego Almanza, Ravi K Bajpai, Joseph G Schroers-Martin, Ludimila Trabanino, Timothy J Lee and 26 more

Abstract read

PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher

In one paragraph

Article in Cell, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

7citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

Urine cell-free RNA for bladder cancer detection and treatment response prediction.Nature medicine · 2026
Article
Urinary Biomarkers in Urological Oncology: From Biological Origin to Clinical Decision-Making-A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
Review
Circulating Tumor Function: A Systems Biology Framework for Liquid Biopsy in Genitourinary Cancers.Genes · 2026
Review
Development and Broad Application of a Double Drop-Off ddPCR Assay for Simultaneous Detection of FourCancers · 2026
Article
Integrated multi-regional multiomic profiling of breast phyllodes tumours reveals peritumoural immune activation and stromal remodelling.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026
Article
Bladder-Preserving Platforms for BCG-Unresponsive Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.OncoTargets and therapy · 2026
Review
Bladder Cancer Biomarkers: Recent Advances in Early Detection, Treatment Prediction, and Prognosis.Oncology research · 2026
Review

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

36 authors.

William Y ShiStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Kevin J LiuStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Mohammad S EsfahaniStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Kathleen E MachDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Nick A PhillipsStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Diego AlmanzaStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Ravi K BajpaiDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Joseph G Schroers-MartinStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Ludimila TrabaninoDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Timothy J LeeDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Vinh LaDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Gabriela RodriguezDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Grace HoltonDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Simon B ChenDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Patrick MullaneDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Douglas J WuDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Monica C NesselbushStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Takeshi SugioStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Jordan C ChengStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Isabel JabaraStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Emily G HamiltonStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Stefan K AligStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Chih-Long LiuDivision of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Dylan J PetersonDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Kris PradoDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Eugene ShkolyarDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Alan ThongDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Jay B ShahDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Harcharan GillDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Christian A KunderDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Emily ChanDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Ali Raza KhakiDivision of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Eila C SkinnerDepartment of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Ash A AlizadehStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: arasha@stanford.edu.

Joseph C LiaoStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Urology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA. Electronic address: jliao@stanford.edu.

Maximilian DiehnStanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: diehn@stanford.edu.

Funding

Molecularly-based outcome and toxicity prediction after radiotherapy for lung cancerR01CA254179 · NCI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI ALIZADEH, ASH ARASH, DIEHN, MAXIMILIAN · 2020 to 2024

$3.1M

Analysis of urine tumor nucleic acids for detection and personalized surveillance of bladder cancerR01CA244526 · NCI · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI ALIZADEH, ASH ARASH, DIEHN, MAXIMILIAN · 2020 to 2024

$3.0M

NCI NIH HHS R01 CA244526NCI NIH HHS R01 CA254179

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Only some non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients benefit from intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), and predictive biomarkers remain lacking. While urine tumor DNA (utDNA) analysis is promising, mutations in tumor-adjacent normal urothelium, namely the field effect, limit specificity. Here, we show that the prevalence of somatic mutations in the urine increases with age. We introduce an improved utDNA minimal residual disease (MRD) approach that increases specificity by removing field-effect mutations. Applying this field-effect-informed MRD approach to 261 samples from NMIBC patients undergoing surgery and adjuvant BCG, we identify three molecular response classes, including surgical responders, BCG responders, and non-responders. Molecular predictors of response to the two treatments differ, with pre-existing immune activation and higher mutation burden enriched in BCG but not surgery responders. These findings highlight the potential of field-effect-informed liquid biopsy methods for guiding personalized therapy and uncovering biomarkers for individual components of multimodal treatments.

Indexed as

Urinary Bladder NeoplasmsAgedAged, 80 and overBCG VaccineBiomarkers, TumorDNA, NeoplasmFemaleHumansLiquid BiopsyMaleMiddle AgedMutationNeoplasm, ResidualNon-Muscle Invasive Bladder NeoplasmsBCG VaccineBiomarkers, TumorDNA, Neoplasmbladder cancercancer biomarkerscell-free DNAfield effectimmunotherapyliquid biopsytherapy responseurine biomarker

Identifiers

PMID41605210

DOI10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.054

PMCPMC12962748

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.