4.0 Review of RNA-Seq studies on bladder cancer

RNA sequencing has emerged as a powerful next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology tool for unbiased identification of gene expression, discovery and quantification of novel transcripts, and identification of alternatively spliced genes.22,41 Consequently, recent progress in RNA-Seq has broadened the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of cancers, including bladder cancer. RNA-Seq has been successfully applied in bladder cancer research for earlier detection, establishing pathological origin, and defining the aberrant genes and dysregulated molecular pathways across patient groups. Thus far, eight studies have been reported on bladder cancer that made use of the RNA-Seq in understanding the bladder cancer pathology. These studies are summarised based on sample, bladder cancer grades and library preparation techniques employed (Table 2 ).