Friend or foe? Role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ in human bladder cancer

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) family is an important group of transcription factors that regulates immune surveillance, cell proliferation, fatty acid regulation, and angiogenesis—functions which have all been implicated in the pathogenesis of bladder cancer. One particular subtype, PPARγ, is expressed at higher levels in bladder cancer specimens than in benign urothelium, and is an attractive molecular target for the development of novel treatment strategies for bladder cancer. In this review, we summarize the data available regarding relevance of PPARγ in bladder cancer and discuss the potential value of PPAR-targeted treatment of bladder cancer.