Where am I: About > Clincial Phenotyping – UPOINT > Background to UPOINT

Background to UPOINT

The management of painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis is undergoing a transformation. Traditional organ-centric treatment models have been deemed inadequate and after hundreds of failed trials, it can be argued that there is a need to accept the premise that no all encompassing etiological mechanism for painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis exists. As such, the search for one ‘cure’ is also quite possibly futile.

Rather, it has been suggested, many trial regimens that have failed to reach clinical significance have actually demonstrated meaningful benefits for subsections of patients. Therefore, the ongoing need remains to extrapolate the characteristics of patients enrolled in clinical trials to enable application of the findings to the clinical setting, subsequently establishing potential benefit.

Understanding that PBS/IC patients are not an homogenous group is important – as they have different aetiologies, different progression trajectories and demonstrate different responses to therapy. As such, there is a valid rationale behind the phenotyping of patients.

Consequently, the ‘UPOINT’ phenotyping classification system has been developed.⁶