The disclosure demonstrates the correlation of the methylation status of the miR-193a gene and the expression level of the miR-193a-3p transcript with the resistance of bladder cancer cells to certain chemotherapeutic drugs including pirarubicin (Pi), pacilitaxol (Pa), adriamycin (Ad), epirubicin hydrochloride (EH), and cispaltin (Ci), but not others (e.g, hydroxycamptothecin (Hy), gemcitabine (Ge) and mitomycin (Mi)). Further, the disclosure identifies seven target genes (SRSF2, PLAU, HIC2, LOXL4, HOXC9, PSEN1, and ING5) that are directly regulated by miR-193a-3p. The methylation/expression status of miR-193a-3p alone or in combination of the expression level of the target genes can serve as valuable indicators for chemotherapy outcome of a bladder cancer patient with a corresponding chemotherapeutic drug, and can be drug targets for sensitizing a bladder cancer patient for that drug.