Combating bladder cancer
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).
Health programs are in urgent need of advanced diagnostic imaging tools and treatments to eliminate chemoresistant cancerous growths that are smaller than 1 mm in size.
Improving the diagnosis and therapy of small bladder cancer lesions
PHIRE is focused on developing and bringing to market a new high-resolution medical device that combines diagnosis and therapy (theranostic) for these small lesions.
This device is designed to be effective in clinical settings, particularly for treating bladder cancer, and is suitable for both male and female patients.
Improve quality of life of bladder-cancer patients
Reduce the social cost of bladder-cancer management
Develop a solution applicable also to other diseases and technology markets
Novel technologies
Photoacoustic Device Add-ons
A module attached to photoacoustic devices improving imaging of hollow organs.
Gold Nanorods
A large-scale synthesis of urine-stable gold nanords for clinical use.
AI-Driven Prediction Maps
Prediction map of gold nanorods to indicate their concentration, improving effectiveness.
Multi-Sectoral Effects
The adoption for clinical applications of this new device will reduce the frequency of the bladder tumour relapse and the number of patients with relapsing tumour, with a drastic positive impact on the quality of life of patients while reducing the social cost of the management of patients.
Furthermore, the success of PHIRE’s developments will pave the way for similar theranostic applications targeting lesions smaller than 1 mm in other hollow organs of the human body.
In addition, PHIRE innovative solutions will also be applicable to other markets, such as that of photoacoustic and diagnostic imaging, gold nanoparticles, cystoscopy and medical software.
