Inflammation is inherent in prostatic diseases and it is now accepted that it may facilitate cellular proliferation in both benign and malignant conditions. The strong relationship between prostatic inflammation and pathogenesis of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is supported by epidemiologic, histopathologic and molecular evidence. Contrariwise, the role of inflammation in prostate carcinogenesis is still controversial, although current data indicate that the inflammatory microenvironment can regulate prostate cancer (PCa) growth and progression. Knowledge of the complex molecular landscape associated with chronic inflammation in the context of PCa may lead to the introduction and optimization of novel targeted therapies. In this perspective, evaluation of the inflammatory component in prostate specimens could be included in routine pathology reports.

Metastatic prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males and the fifth cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Despite the major progress in this field, leading to the approval of novel anti-androgens, the prognosis is still poor. A significant number of patients acquire an androgen receptor splice variant 7 (AR-V7), which is constitutively activated and lacks the ligand-binding domain (LBD) while maintaining the nuclear localization signal and DNA-binding domain (DBD). This conformational change, even in the absence of the ligand, allows its retention within the nucleus, where it acts as a transcription factor repressing crucial tumor suppressor genes. AR-V7 is an important oncogenic driver and plays a role as an early diagnostic and prognostic marker, as well as a therapeutic target for antagonists such as niclosamide and TAS3681. Anti-AR-V7 drugs have shown promise in recent clinical investigations on this subset of patients. This mini-review focuses on the relevance of AR-V7 in the clinical manifestations of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and summarizes redemptive therapeutic strategies.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy of the genitourinary tract, with high morbidity and mortality rates. Until recently, the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic urothelial BC was based on the use of chemotherapy alone. Since 2016, five immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in different settings, i.e., first-line, maintenance and second-line treatment, while several trials are still ongoing in the perioperative context. Lately, pembrolizumab, a programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitor, has been approved for Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), using immunotherapy at an early stage of the disease. This review investigates the current state and future perspectives of immunotherapy in BC, focusing on the rationale and results of combining immunotherapy with other therapeutic strategies.