About
Introduction
Background
Since 2017 I work as a medical oncologist at Erasmus MC. Currently, I have a position at the Departments of Medical Oncology and Radiology & Nuclear Medicine. I have two PhDs: one in medical oncology and one in nuclear medicine.Goal
As a physician-scientist I aim to reduce toxicity and improve outcomes in immunotherapy treated patients. Furthermore, I aim to implement new imaging techniques and radionuclide therapy from bench to bedside.Field(s) of expertise
The focus of my clinical and research activities include immunotherapy, molecular imaging, and three tumor types including renal cell cancer, urothelial cell cancer, and melanoma.
At the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, I am appointed as principal investigator for Nuclear Medicine. Currently, I am the principal investigator of > 20 clinical trials, including industry- and investigator-initiated trials.
Education and career
- 2006: Medical degree (cum laude), VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam
- 2006-2007: Clinical research fellow, Department of Medical Oncology, VUmc, Amsterdam
- 2007-2011: PhD student, Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Research, VUmc, Amsterdam
- 2011-2015: Training for doctor in internal medicine, VUmc
- 2012: On the same day, double dissertation of two different PhD theses entiteld “Towards personalized treatment planning of chemotherapy: [11C]docetaxel PET studies in lung cancer patients" (supervisors prof. dr. A.A. Lammertsma and prof. dr. E.F. Smit) and “Sunitinib for advanced renal cell cancer – pharmacodynamic aspects (supervisors prof. dr. E. Boven en prof. dr. J.B.A.G. Haanen)” (cum laude), VUmc, Amsterdam
- 2016-2017: Clinical fellow medical oncology, NKI-AvL, Amsterdam
- 2018: Registered medical oncologist
- 2018-present: Consultant medical oncologist, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.
Publications
Teaching activities
Supervision of PhD students with PhD projects on urothelial cell cancer, stage III melanoma, metastatic melanoma and imaging.
Several lectures and educational programmes for students, residents and medical specialists with focus on immunotherapy and treatment of renal cell cancer, urothelial cell cancer and melanoma.
Other positions
- Programme committee and (co-)chair of several meetings including Cells to Surgery, WIN-O symposium and national meetings on renal cell cancer and melanoma.
- Member of several scientific committees including Dutch Melanoma Treatment Registry (DMTR), Werkgroep Immunotherapie Nederland voor Oncologie (WIN-O), focus group melanoma Integraal Kankercentrum Nederland (IKNL), and Dutch Uro-Oncology Studygroup (DUOS).
- Consultant and member of several advisory boards on immunotherapy and treatment of urothelial cell cancer, renal cell cancer, and melanoma.
Scholarships, grants, and awards
- 2005: Travel Scholarship, Van Walree Foundation, Netherlands
- 2005: Young Investigator Scholarship, Annual Congress Academy of Molecular Imaging, Orlando, USA
- 2008: Young Investigator Award, New Trends in Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Bologna, Italy
- 2009: Chris Meijer Award, CCA/V-ICI, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2010: Merit Award, ASCO Annual Meeting 2010, Chicago, USA
- 2012: VUmc award for double dissertation, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2012: Travel grant, 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, Dublin, Ireland
- 2012: Thesis Award for the thesis entitled ‘Sunitinib for advanced renal cell cancer – clinical and pharmacodynamic aspects’, Nederlandse Vereniging voor Medische Oncologie (NVMO, Dutch Society for Medical Oncology), Netherlands
- 2012: Nomination VIVA 400 Award, category smart women, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2013: C.J. Roos Award for thesis entitled ‘Towards personalized treatment planning of chemotherapy: [11C]docetaxel PET studies in lung cancer patients’, Dutch Society of Internal Medicine, Netherlands
- 2013: PhD Award for ‘Excellent PhD Thesis’ entitled ‘Towards personalized treatment planning of chemotherapy: [11C]docetaxel PET studies in lung cancer patients’, European Society for Molecular Imaging, Torino, Italy
- 2014: Selected young researcher for the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Lindau, Germany
- 2017: Selected researcher for the 19th ECCO-AACR-EORTC-ESMO Workshop on Methods in Clinical Cancer Research, 2017, Zeist, Netherlands
- 2018: Erasmus MC Fellowship for research proposal entitled ‘Reducing toxicity and improving outcomes in immunotherapy treated melanoma patients’, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- 2018: KWF Young Investigator Bas Mulder Award for research proposal entitled ‘Safe Stop-QoL: impact of early discontinuation of PD-1 blockade on quality of life (QoL) of patients with advanced and metastatic melanoma’, Netherlands
- 2018: Daniël den Hoed Award for research proposal entitled ‘Early detecting and understanding treatment failure in melanoma brain metastases’, Rotterdam, Netherlands
