The early identification of urinary bladder cancer patients, who are at a high risk of developing recurrences and tumor progression, is of utmost importance, because they require a more aggressive therapeutic approach and close follow-up. The routine use ofnewprognosticators, more specific and reliable than the established clinicopathologic factors, is therefore mandatory. The present work reviews some of the most significant biological tumor markers (cell cycle proteins, blood group antigens,

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... umor suppressor genes, oncogenes, CD44 gene transcripts, etc.) defined immunohistochemically in bladder cancer patients. It summarises most of the recently published results of the clinical trials, using these markers as predictors of the tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. It is also an attempt to highlight the present state of the problem, the still existing controversy and some of the hypotheses concerning the predictive potential of the recently detected tumor markers.