Name Responsible Activity "Pediatric Oncology" "Sandra Jacobs" "Pediatric Oncology is a research group within Oncology that focuses on younger patients. The Department of Oncology promotes synergy in innovative oncological research. By creating a close link between bed and couch and by taking advantage of advanced technologies, our researchers want to expose important molecular mechanisms behind the development and progression of cancer and maximize the chances of translating these findings into better clinical biomarkers, adaptive strategies and innovative treatments." "Department of Oncology" "Baki Topal" "The Department of Oncology at the KU Leuven fosters synergy in innovative oncological research. By creating a close link between bed and bench and by capitalizing on advanced technologies, our researchers aim to unravel key molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of cancer and to maximize opportunities to translate these findings into better clinical biomarkers, adaptive strategies and innovative treatments" "Head and Neck Oncology" "Vincent Vander Poorten" "The research group Head and Neck Oncologyfocuses on outcomes research and surgical innovation and technology assessment for promoting minimally invasive surgical approaches.On the outcomes research part, (1) our team has recently developed and validated a clinicopathologic prognostic index. We are exploring the possibilities of evaluating molecular biological factors for inclusion in the index and optimizing prognostic accuracy. (2) Outcomes research further focuses on ethmoidal adenocarcinoma. These patients are registered and the treatment strategy of endoscopic resection and postoperative together with M. Jorissen. An update of now 123 patients has just been analysed and will be published. A. Hoeben and P. Clement are starting an analysis of p53 in recurrent tumors of this database. (3) Lastly, Outcomes research focuses on epidemiologic analysis on a national level of head and neck oncology treatment. To this purpose a Web-based cancer registration project is ongoing in collaboration with the Belgian Cancer Registry. The project focuses on further elaboration of head and neck cancer prospective registration in order to obtain a population-based clinicopathologic database." "Clinical Digestive Oncology" "The research group Clinical Digestive Oncology focuses on:Clinical research on new treatment modalities with a focus on strategy of treatment sequences and on new drugs, including also radionucleide treatment. The clinical research is also focused towards the multidisciplinary management and multimodal treatment of gastrointestinal tumors.Clinical research on optimization of diagnostic modalities including response evaluation with modern imaging techniques and functional imaging with new PET tracers and diffusion and perfusion MRI.Understanding Hereditary Colon Cancer syndromes.Impact of screening for colon cancer.In 3. and 4. an integration of advanced endoscopic imaging is important.Translational research: prognostic and predictive markers for outcome and response of patients treated with GI malignancies through access to blood and tumor of patients treated in Leuven and in national or large international clinical trials.Understanding mechanisms of resistance and sensitivity to new drugs" "Digestive Oncology" "Sabine Tejpar" "Digestive Oncology" "Laboratory of Experimental Oncology" "Patrick Schöffski" "There are five main research topics in the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology ( LEO):molecular characterization of rare tumors focused on identification of predictive biomarkers;preclinical efficacy studies of novel targeted agents in soft tissue sarcomas using a unique panel of xenograft models derived from patient samples;translational research, identifying prognostic markers related to experimental treatment, studied in biological samples originating from phase I-III clinical trials;pathophysiology of selected side effects occurring in patients during the treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors;prognostic and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer patients with a special focus on the biology of aging." "Molecular Digestive Oncology" "Sabine Tejpar" "The laboratory for Molecular Digestive Oncology focusses on gastro-intestinal cancers and currently has two types of activities:large molecular annotation projects, aimed at better describing the overall molecular identity of GI tumors and potential subtypes. Activities here include in depth molecular annotation of tumor series, state of the art bioinformatics for subtype derivation and biological annotation, comparisons of primary and metastatic lesions to study drift and intra patient heterogeneity. These activities are aimed at increasing our understanding of the disease and at providing the clinical and drug developer community a more differentiated map and stratification factors for targeted trials. We work closely with the EORTC, NCI and pharma to implement these findings. In terms of predictive markers we have focused on the EGFR pathway inhibitors and more recently on anti angiogenesis markers.basic cell biology and functional work: we run functional studies on candidate genes/pathways from above to better understand their role in colon cancer and potential therapeutic targeting. Currently we work on the phosphatase PTPRO phosphatase, the EGFR ligand Epiregulin, BRAF signaling, Zic2 and syntenins." "Molecular Imaging, Pathology, Radiotherapy & Oncology (MIPRO)" "The department of Oncology houses research topics in - Oncology (most recent projects: Validation of Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) as a therapeutic target and biomarker; Molecular characterization of circulating tumour cells in patients with breast cancer.) - Pathological anatomy - Nuclear medicine - Radiotherapy." "Laboratory for Medical and Molecular Oncology" "Ilse Rooman" "As part of the Oncology Research Center, the Laboratory for Medical & Molecular Oncology (LMMO) at the VUB Faculty of Medicine engages in several major research initiatives: to study pancreatic cancer biology (Prof. Dr. Ilse Rooman), to study cancer immunotherapy including autologous dendritic cell therapies (Prof. Dr. Bart Neyns) and to advance targeted therapies for cancer in genomically defined patients (personalized medicine, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Jacques De Grève) PROJECTS ROOMAN LAB The role of axon guidance genes in pancreatic cancer The SLIT ligand-ROBO receptor pathway presents frequent mutations in pancreatic cancer. We study the biology in pancreatic tumor cells and their interaction with the stroma. Molecular characterization of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma can be subdivided in different molecular tumor subtypes.   Our study aims at pragmatic subtyping and studying subtype-specific biomarkers. Exocrine cell differentiation in pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer Exocrine cells are the cells of origin for tumor formation. We study changes in exocrine cell differentiation, in particular those of acinar cells, that might predispose for tumor development. Drug repurposing in pancreatic cancer We investigate the effects of non-cancer drugs for their potential tumor inhibitory effects.The above research is underpinned by advanced microscopic techniques, and advanced pancreatic (tumor) cell modelling in vitro (cell lines, primary cells, organoids) and in mice (genetically engineered mouse models, patient derived xenografts).  PROJECTS NEYNS LAB Targeted Therapies (BRAF/MEK-inhibitors) (Dr. G. Awada) TraMel-WT (PI Prof. Dr. B. Neyns): trial of Trametinib in patients with advanced pretreated BRAFV600 wild-type MelanomaCombi-R2 (PI Prof. Dr. B. Neyns): Dabrafenib/Trametinib/Hydroxychloroquine for advanced pretreated BRAF V600 mutant melanoma Myeloid Dendritic Cell Therapy (MYDC) (Dr. JK. Schwarze) myDCTV (PI Prof. Dr. B. Neyns): intratumoral injection of autologous CD1c/CD141 (BDCA-1/BDCA-3)+ myDC plus Talimogene Laherparepvec (T-VEC)myDAvlpNi (PI Prof. Dr. B. Neyns): intratumoral injection of autologous CD1c/CD141 (BDCA-1/BDCA-3)+ myDC, Avelumab, and Ipilimumab plus systemic Nivolumab Checkpoint Inhibitors (Prof. Dr. B. Neyns) GlitipNi: intra-tumoral Ipilimumab plus intravenous Nivolumab following the resection of recurrent GlioblastomaLuSCID: Lung cancer treated with SBRT, Checkpoint Inhibitors and myeloid Dendritic cells PARP Inhibition in HRD Solid Tumors (Dr. S. Joris) Precision 2 Study: Olaparib: efficacy of olaparib in advanced cancers occurring in patients with germline mutations or somatic tumor mutations in homologous recombination genesWhole exome sequencing on index patients in families with breast and pancreatic cancer EGFR-Targeted Therapy (Prof. Dr. L. Decoster) Afatinib: a prospective explorative open label Phase II study of Afatinib in the treatment of advanced cancers carrying a EGFR, HER2 or HER3 mutationG-OncoCOACH (geriatric assessment): randomized study to investigate the effect of GA-directed interventions coordinated by the geriatric team and patient coaching versus interventions coordinated by oncologists in older adults with cancer treated with systemic therapy" "Surgical Oncology" "Daphne Hompes" "There are four main topics of research which are closely related to major areas of clinical work. 1. Identifying prognostic and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer patients. 2. Molecular annotation of somatic mutations in sarcoma and the discovery and validation of genetic biomarkers and establishing cell lines and tumor xenografts. 3. Genetic polymorphism in melanoma; vitamin D and malignant melanoma; characterization of tumor response to Melphalan in vivo and relapses. 4. Tissue sampling for various studies: breast, pediatric oncology, sarcoma, skin, hematology"