Background
Bladder cancer is a highly over-represented disease in males. The involvement of sex steroids in bladder carcinogenesis and the utilisation of steroid hormone action as a therapeutic target have been frequently proposed. However, the intratumoural steroid milieu remains unclear.
Methods
We used mass spectrometry and transcriptomic profiling to determine the levels of 23 steroid hormones and the expression of steroidogenic enzymes in primary tumours from patients who underwent transurethral resection (n = 24), and tumours and adjacent morphologically benign bladder tissues from treatment-naïve patients, who underwent radical cystectomy (n = 20). The corresponding steroids were determined from the patients' sera. Findings: Our