Projects
Cancer during pregnancy: long-term follow-up of neuropsychological and behavioral development of children after antenatal exposure to chemo- and/or radiotherapy KU Leuven
Today, cancer during pregnancy has become increasingly prevalent, largely because of the recent trend to postpone childbearing until a more mature age. The current prevalence in Europe is 1 in 1000 pregnancies, with breast cancer and hematological cancers accounting for more than half. When cancer is diagnosed in an expecting mother, the decision whether or not to start treatment strikes a delicate balance between the well-being of the mother ...
The role of functional imaging and molecular profiling in image guided highly conformal radiotherapy for head and neck cancer: towards a patient tailored treatment. KU Leuven
Optimalization of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer KU Leuven
In head-and-neck cancer (HNC), radiotherapy (RT) is an important part of the treatment possibilities. It can be recommended as definitive treatment with or without chemotherapy, adjuvantly after surgery, or in the treatment of local failure after surgery. RT allows organ preservation and improved function preservation compared to surgery and can therefore be an elegant solution. However, radiation of HNC is often complex due to large planning ...
Optimization of overall treatment time for whole gland stereotactic body radiotherapy with integrated focal boosting in prostate cancer KU Leuven
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males in Europe and is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. In this project we aim to make progress in the disease management of PCa in terms of both treatment outcome (tumor control and toxicity outcome) and patient comfort including patients’ quality of life (QoL) during and after treatment. External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is often used to treat primary PCa. ...
Targeting radiotherapy resistance in Head and Neck Cancers: the potential biomarker role of TIPRL1 and CIP2A, two cellular inhibitors of Protein Phosphatase 2A KU Leuven
Being one of the main post-translational modifications, reversible protein phosphorylation is of major importance in signal transduction regulation. Over the years, the kinases phosphorylating many substrates have been extensively studied, while the protein phosphatases have been lagging behind. The PP2A-like phosphatases PP2A, PP4 and PP6, all have been shown to play a role in the regulation of tumorigenesis and the DNA damage response ...
Clinical translation and evaluation of a novel prone crawl technique in the search for offering older women short, efficient and non-toxic adjuvant breast radiotherapy Ghent University
Adjuvant radiotherapy in breast cancer improves loco-regional control and survival. Elder patients
with breast cancer are frequently undertreated leading to a strongly decreased breast cancer
specific survival. Adjuvant radiotherapy is omitted for various reasons including:
• frailty of the patient
• reduced threshold for and tolerance of toxicity
• impaired mobility, rendering optimal radiotherapy positioning more ...
Neurocognition-sparing radiotherapy of brain and base of skull tumours: modelling toxicity and probing dose-dependent alterations in the brain using advanced imaging techniques. KU Leuven
Radiotherapy (RT) plays a crucial role in the treatment of many primary brain and skull base tumours, including meningioma and low-grade glioma. Due to the nature of the tumours, and the increasing effectiveness of the treatment, long-term survival can be achieved in an increasing number of patients, making side effects an important issue in the follow-up and social reintegration of these patients. Post-RT neurocognitive decline is one of the ...
COMFIX: Comfortable patient-specific individualized radiotherapy immobilization using additive manufacturing technology KU Leuven
Radiotherapy is one of the most effective cancer treatment techniques. For 50% of all cancer patients it plays an important role in their course of treatment. The goal of radiotherapy using X-rays or particle beams is to deliver a high intensity of radiation dose to the tumor avoiding the surrounding healthy tissues as much as possible since irradiation of normal tissue can lead to unwanted side effects. Based on a computerized tomography ...
Optimization of the preclinical assessment of DNA repair inhibitors in combination with radiotherapy in head and neck cancers KU Leuven
Head and neck cancers are the 7th most frequent cancers worldwide, with yearly 2.500 new diagnoses in Belgium. In the majority of these cancers cytotoxic chemotherapy is combined with local radiotherapy. Still up to 50% of patients still die from local disease, indicating the urgent need for novel more selective treatment strategies. In the last decennia intensive effort has been put forward to find novel, more tumor/target specific therapies ...