Projects
Implementation and validation of liquid biopsies as a diagnostic tool for early breast cancer detection in South African black women KU Leuven
As life expectancy rises across Africa, the emergence of non-communicable diseases including breast cancer as a cause of mortality has dramatically increased. Access to early, precise diagnosis of breast cancer is currently absent within the South African public health system, disproportionately affecting black women in poor and/or rural households. Access to radiography or biopsies is limited to tertiary hospitals which are concentrated in ...
Detection and validation of EV-associated molecular patterns to diagnose early stage ovarian cancer Ghent University
Early detection is key to reducing ovarian cancer-associated deaths. Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EV), nanometer-sized membrane vesicles which contain proteins, lipids, metabolites and nucleic acids, enter the systemic circulation. We analyze and validate the implementation of EV-associated molecular patterns from blood to detect early stage ovarian cancer.
1H-NMR and LCMS-based metabolomics on human plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) for early detection of colorectal cancer. University of Antwerp
Early detection of cervical cancer in hard-to-reach populations of women through portable and point-of-care HPV testing Ghent University
Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worlThe ELEVATE project sets a multidisciplinary team comprising manufactures and experts from Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to improve the global adequacy and coverage of cervical cancer screening, particularly to specific populations of women that by not being regularly screened (hard-to-reach populations) are at higher-risk to develop cervical ...
Specific and sensitive detection of extracellular vesicles using FO-SPR for early cancer diagnosis KU Leuven
EVs have substantial potential in non-invasive cancer detection since they act as mediators of cell-to-cell communication by carrying diverse molecular cargo. Even though numerous technologies have been developed for EV detection, many are not yet applicable for clinical settings as they rely on complex EV enrichment methods that lack sensitivity and/or standardization. To overcome this, over the past years, we established a calibrated ...
Urine as a liquid biopsy for early stage cancer detection. University of Antwerp
Evaluating the clinical utility of minimally-invasive cfDNA analysis for surveillance and early cancer detection in germline TP53 mutation carriers KU Leuven
Individuals with hereditary cancer syndromes have an increased lifetime risk for malignancies. Germline TP53 variant carriers (Li-Fraumeni syndrome) have exceedingly high, as 70-100%, lifetime cancer risk with diagnosis often at young-onset and at several organs. Carriers undergo lifelong intensive surveillance programs being faced with clinical, psychological, and social burden. Hence, there is a need for effective cancer risk management ...
Fluor-PSMA PET/CT for the early detection of recurrent prostate cancer after curative treatment Ghent University
The innovative value and objective of this study is to demonstrate that 18F-PSMA-11 PET / CT provides at least a non-inferior (or similar) diagnostic method in a prostate cancer patient population (with biochemical recurrence after local therapy with curative objective compared to 68Ga). -PSMA-11 PET / CT A second important objective is to investigate in a subpopulation whether 18F-PSMA-11 cannot be superior in the detection of ...