Natural history of bladder cancer is characterized by high risk of disease progression even for patients with a clinical diagnosis of superficial disease; in these tumors, the occurrence of local relapse is known to be dependent on the angiogenesis rate. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), has been described to be elevated in urine and serum of patients with bladder cancer. We investigated the expression of bFGF at mRNA level in a panel of 32 transitional cell tumors of the urinary bladder and in normal bladder tissues used as controls. Expression of bFGF was found elevated in most tumors of high stage, where its presence was found correlated with the occurrence of early local relapses. Furthermore, bFGF was found highly expressed in the majority of tumors showing a high bcl-2 expression rate. Our data suggest that bFGF expression could contribute to the progression of disease; it may provide a prognostic indicator in the identification of patients with high risk for occurrence of local relapses.