Impact - Phire Project

The Phire Impact

Multi-Sectoral Effetcs

PHIRE's impact spans multiple sectors, such as:

Health

Increase quality of life of patients, because drastic reduction of tumor relapse due to the identification and treatment of undetectable and chemoresistant bladder cancer lesions.

Social costs

Reduction of costs carry up by the national healthcare systems, due to the reduced number of surgeries, treatments and frequency of follow ups of patients.

Environment

Reduction of the amount of anticancer drugs and by-products and toxic waste from nuclear imaging techniques used to monitor for the therapies efficacy in wastewater, due to reduced number of patients requiring chemotherapy

Market segments

Increase the market of photoacoustic imaging, nanoparticles, cystoscope, endoscope.

Educational

Through open access publications, datasets and metadata, supervision of undergraduate and PhD students and contacts with stakeholders, innovators and scientists in other European consortia.

Why bladder cancer is one of the most expensive cancers

Bladder cancer ranks among the most costly cancers to treat, primarily because of its high rate of recurrence. Many patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer experience tumour regrowth, sometimes within just three months or even sooner after surgery. One of the biggest clinical challenges is detecting very small lesions that can easily be missed during standard procedures like cystoscopy and TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tumour).

To address this, there is a clear need for new technologies that can detect these tiny lesions earlier and more reliably. Even better would be a theranostic approach, one that not only identifies these early lesions but also treats them immediately, preventing further recurrence.

The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of invasive procedures patients currently undergo, such as frequent cystoscopies, ultrasounds, and cytology tests. These repeated diagnostics contribute significantly to the high cost of bladder cancer care and severely impact patients’ quality of life. Reducing tumour recurrence and progression risks would ease this burden, improving outcomes and making treatment more efficient and affordable.