About
Introduction
I am Medical Oncologist, senior staff member and full professor at the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute.
My research focus is Genito-Urinary Oncology. I have chaired the EORTC-Genitourinary Group Chemotherapy Subcommittee for many years and initiated and led randomized studies in testicular cancer, renal, prostate and bladder cancer. I am still involved in a wide variety of ongoing clinical and translational studies. I supervise 6-8 PhD students in the field of clinical and preclinical reserarch in GU cancers.
Field(s) of expertise
I co-chaired several registration trials, ranging from chemotherapy and AR targeted agents in mCRPC, to recent checkpoint inhibition (PD-1) trials in bladder cancer. I am currently involved in a wide variety of ongoing clinical studies and serve on Industry Advisory Board Committees, as well as Data Monitoring Committees.
In 2011 I launched the Dutch Uro Oncology Study Group (www.stichtingduos.nl) creating a collaborative network of 25 hospitals in the Netherlands and am Chairman of the Group.
Education and career
I continued my career at the ErasmusMC Cancer Institute, formerly Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center. In 2009 I obtained a full professorship in Experimental systemic treatment of Genito-Urinary cancers.
Recent Findings
Previous studies in the lab have shown that autologous dendritic cells pulsed with allogenic tumor cell lysate was able to induce peripheral T cell activation and tumor-reactive T cell responses in patients with mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer. Current research focuses on how to initiate an effective immune response in the tumor as well as the tumor-draining lymph node using dendritic cell vaccination. Furthermore, we are studying novel approaches for (personalized) vaccination. In addition, we have identified T cell characteristics that underlie clinical efficacy of immune check inhibitors or chemotherapeutic agents in mesothelioma. The selected publications below give an impression of our work.
Teaching activities
Other positions
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Research groups:
The clinical research program in Genito-urinary Oncology comprises the entire spectrum of phase 1-3 clinical trials, both Industry as well as investigator initiated studies and is embedded in the Department’s research programs Translational Cancer Genomics and Proteomics, Translational Pharmacology and Translational Onco-Immunology. Clinical and preclinical research activities are highly complementary: findings coming forth from preclinical studies are assessed for their clinical value and clinical questions lead to novel preclinical studies. There is well-established collaboration with the Departments of Urology, Uro-Pathology, Molecular Diagnostic Pathology, and Radiotherapy. There is an extensive collaboration with partners from academia and industry, both nationally and internationally.
Research projects:
The clinical research program in Genito-urinary Oncology, including the entire spectrum of phase 1-3 clinical trials, both Industry as well as investigator initiated studies, is embedded in the Department’s research programs Translational Cancer Genomics and Proteomics, Translational Pharmacology and Translational Onco-Immunology. There is well-established collaboration with the Departments of Urology, Uro-Pathology, Molecular Diagnostic Pathology, Computational Sciences, Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine. I have an extensive collaboration with partners from academia and industry, both nationally and internationally.
