Diagnostic method for bladder cancer

Raphaël Canadas

Faculty of Medicine, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Advances in cancer research in recent decades have led to a paradigm shift in the treatment of the disease, which is becoming increasingly personalised. However, this requires specific diagnostic tests that in some cases pose a real challenge. Such is the case with bladder cancer, which has a recurrence rate of up to 70 %, making it one of the most expensive cancers for the healthcare system. There are no molecular biomarkers to identify it, so the standard method is based on cystoscopy, an invasive procedure that requires hospital visits.

One of the most promising diagnostic approaches is the detection of circulating tumour cells, either in blood or in other fluids, such as exfoliated in urine. However, in the case of bladder cancer, this is currently not an option due to the low frequency of released tumour cells, resulting in false-negative cytologies.

In this context, researchers in this project will develop a non-invasive diagnostic method, at least as accurate as cystoscopy but cheaper, to identify tumour cells in urine. They will focus on the unique characteristics of these cells and use ultrasound and imaging techniques to detect tumour cells. The integration of ultrasounds and imaging will configure a low-cost device that will use AI to identify rare cancer cells and connect their characteristics with the cancer risk and stage of progression.

An Innovative Approach for Non-Invasive Bladder Cancer Detection and Patient Monitoring

Stage 1