Urothelium Carcinoma Infographic.
Medium: Adobe photoshop and illustrator
Client: Johnson & Johnson/ AMI
Purpose: To depict the pathology of urothelial carcinoma, illustrating malignant cells arising from the bladder’s transitional epithelium and growing as papillary fronds or invading deeper layers of the bladder wall. The image also highlights treatment options, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy for different stages of disease.
Process Work
When working on this illustration, I wanted to clearly depict how urothelial carcinoma develops through the bladder wall in four stages, from superficial mucosal involvement to deep muscle invasion. Because the tumor grows inside the bladder where direct clinical images are limited, I relied heavily on reading medical literature and pathology descriptions to understand and visualize the progression through the transitional epithelium, lamina propria, muscularis propria, and beyond. My goal was to communicate this layered invasion clearly, helping viewers appreciate how staging guides treatment decisions such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy
Ideation and Work in Progress
In developing this illustration, I wanted to create a clear and clinically meaningful depiction of urothelial carcinoma by carefully studying medical literature to understand its progression through the bladder wall. I focused on showing the four key stages: carcinoma confined to the urothelium (stage Ta/Tis), invasion into the lamina propria (stage T1), penetration into the muscularis propria (stage T2), and spread beyond the bladder wall into perivesical fat or nearby organs (stages T3–T4).
I began with initial sketches to plan how best to lay out these layers in a single, cohesive cross-sectional view, thinking carefully about how to illustrate the tumor growth at each stage in a way that would make the progression easy to follow. As I refined the concept, I used color and shading to differentiate the tissue layers clearly, making sure the invasion pathway was unambiguous.
Because there are no direct clinical photographs of tumor growth inside the bladder wall in cross-section, I relied on detailed pathology descriptions and diagrams to inform my rendering. Throughout the process, I aimed to balance anatomical accuracy with an educational clarity that would help viewers appreciate how staging guides treatment choices such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy.
