Projects
Implementation of AI-based contouring and treatment planning for daily personalized RT treatments for lung cancer KU Leuven
The general research objective is to investigate the potential of a CBCT-only workflow for online adaptive radiation therapy for lung cancer. Radiotherapy is the standard treatment for (inoperable) non-small cell lung tumors. Thanks to radio(chemo)therapy, it can be shown that such tumors shrink by 2,5% per day. This regression also means that higher doses are delivered to surrounding organs-at-risk. In addition, it was shown that the highest ...
Evaluation of the quality of care of endometrial cancer in Belgium - EFFectiveness of Endometrial Cancer Treatment (EFFECT) project. KU Leuven
Cancer of the corpus uteri (uterine cancer) is the fourth most common cancer site in European women after breast, lung and colorectal cancer (From https://ecis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/, accessed on 05/09/2018). Every year around 1,500 new uterine cancer cases are diagnosed in Belgium. In comparison with other female cancers, such as breast or ovarian cancer, the evidence for the treatment of uterine cancer is rather limited. For instance, surgery is ...
Improving current cancer detection and treatment follow up through the development of next generation cancer assays. University of Antwerp
OPTImisation of cancer treatment in AGEd persons : integration of geriatric assessment and aging biomarker analysis in elderly clinical cancer trials KU Leuven
Treating older patients with (breast) cancer is a major challenge. On the one hand, older persons are more vulnerable to side effects of therapy, which may severely impact on quality of life. Thus, overtreatment should be avoided, but on the other hand, undertreatment (which is common in elderly) can lead to worse survival. There is a delicate balance between benefits of therapy and risk of (sometimes life threatening) toxicity. There is an ...
‘Cancer in Pregnancy’: Effects of prenatal exposure to cancer treatment on IUGR. To examine the potential biomarkers to develop insights in the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms of IUGR. KU Leuven
The current prevalence of cancer during pregnancy in Europe is 1 in 1000 to 2000 pregnancies, and this number is increasing. The primordial concern when treating cancer during pregnancy is the potential effect of chemo/radiotherapy on the fetal. In a recent pioneering study on 70 children with prenatal exposure to cancer treatment, Amant et al. found the developmental outcome of such children to be overall reassuring. However, intra-uterine ...
Improving current cancer detection and treatment follow-up through the development of a next generation cancer assay. University of Antwerp
Analysis of plasma, platelets and urine nucleic acids: the value of liquid biopsy to improve diagnosis, follow-up and monitoring of treatment response of lung cancer and pancreatic cancer patients. University of Antwerp
Impact of prenatal exposure to cancer treatment during pregnancy and of chemotherapy for breast cancer on the brains: a multimodal MR imaging study KU Leuven
In the first part of this project we will analyse data from a longitudinal study where we followed 80 patients with breast cancer from diagnosis until a year after treatment, using MRI of the brains, neuropsychological testing and blood samples. After chemotherapy, many patients experience cognitive complaints. Moreover, using MRI, we previously showed that there are structural and functional changes in the brain. However, the link between ...
Cancer and pregnancy: effects of prenatal exposure to cancer treatment on neurocognitive development: an MRI and ERP study KU Leuven
The objective of this project is to investigate the long-term neurocognitive effects of prenatal exposure to cancer and cancer treatment (surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy). Advanced MRI techniques (multishell Diffusion-weighted Imaging (DWI), resting-state functional MRI and high-resolution structural MRI) and Event Related Potentials (ERP) are applied in order to have an as accurate and complete assessment as possible.
In this ...