The Netherlands Cancer Institute

“𝐌𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝: 𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭!” “As a nurse practitioner in the urology department, I primarily guide patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. They have various treatment options available to them, and it can be tricky for them to find the most suitable one. I always had lots of questions. At some point the head of our department, who is also my supervisor, said: go ahead and find out. So I did. One thing led to another, and now I even completed a thesis! One of the things I investigated is what these men actually prefer. One patient may value a cure more than anything—just get rid of the cancer. Another would not want to live with incontinence or erectile dysfunction after prostate removal. You want to provide the most accurate information to your patients at all times. Not just some general information, but actual details about the specific side effects they may be at risk of. I also investigated whether the length of the urethra impacts incontinence, as described in the literature. It turns out that it does: a shorter urethra increases the risk of incontinence. We can now predict the risk of incontinence after prostatectomy for each individual patient. It's amazing that we are able to do this.” Corinne Tillier will defend her thesis on September 5 ➡️ https://bit.ly/47jYznz #phd #phdlife #phdstudent #phdjourney #thesis #dissertation #thesisdefense

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐔𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐊𝐈 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐦!🧬 Discover cutting-edge insights into DNA replication and its critical role in cell fate, chromatin regulation, and cancer transformation. On November 20-21, 2024, the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) is hosting a meeting in Amsterdam focused on novel fundamental insights on genome stability and its implications for human health. This event, featuring the renowned EU Doctoral Network Replifate (replifate.eu), will bring together international experts ranging from experts on early embryonic development to biochemistry, structural biology, mouse models and replication genomics, as well as drug discovery. The goal? To spark novel collaborations and drive advancements. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝑨𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅? ✔️Engage with top-tier international and national speakers. ✔️Participate in poster sessions, short talks, and dynamic discussions. ✔️Network with leading researchers across diverse fields. Mark your calendars and join us in shaping the future of replication research! ➡️ https://bit.ly/4du7hla #NKI #NKIReplifate #DNARelication #GenomeStability #CancerResearch #Replifate2024

White blood cells loaded with cholesterol play a critical role in the growth of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. These fat-laden macrophages influence the local immune response and help the tumor survive. A team of researchers led by group leader leila akkari discovered that macrophages, cells that normally help clear harmful substances from the body, behave differently in glioblastomas. They found a group of macrophages filled with fat particles in animal tissue as well as patient datasets. “In addition to these macrophages being loaded with lipids, we also discovered that they suppress the immune system, which may explain why immunotherapy is ineffective for this type of cancer,” says postdoc Johanna Erbani. But how do these macrophages acquire these lipids, Akkari and her colleagues wondered. The brain contains billions of nerve cells protected by a myelin sheath, rich in fats like cholesterol. Macrophages specialize in clearing away harmful debris. “What we observe in the lab is that macrophages clear the myelin sheath from dying nerve cells and load up on cholesterol after entering glioblastoma,” PhD candidate Daan Kloosterman explains. “This cholesterol is then transferred to tumor cells, which use it to divide more rapidly and grow faster.” Group leader leila akkari: “While we have been aware of the role of cholesterol metabolism in glioblastoma development for some time, the involvement of macrophages in this process had not been described until now. This research uncovers a new mechanism by which tumor cells, which themselves cannot produce large amounts of the fat they need, indirectly obtain lipids after macrophages have recycled myelin and 'generously' shared their lipid with them.” Read more ➡️ https://bit.ly/3SNqMwZ #glioblastoma #cancerresearch #nki #macrophages #cholesterol

🏆Medical oncologist and researcher John Haanen has been awarded the prestigious 2024 ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor, presented by the ESMO - European Society for Medical Oncology, recognizes his exceptional contributions to the field of oncology. Haanen is being celebrated for his groundbreaking research in innovative immunotherapies, particularly tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapies for metastatic melanoma. His work has had a significant impact on cancer treatment and offers hope to many patients worldwide. In addition to his role at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), Haanen is a professor at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and head of the Melanoma Clinic at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois - CHUV in Lausanne, Switzerland. Haanen will receive the award during the opening ceremony of the ESMO Congress 2024 on September 13. Congratulations, John Haanen, on this well-deserved recognition! 🎉 #esmo24 #cancerresearch #nki #TIL #immunotherapy

At the Netherlands Cancer Institute, we want everybody to be themselves. No matter their age, etnicity, religion/worldview. distance to the labor market, sexuality, or gender identity. The Netherlands Cancer Institute is for everyone. 🏳️🌈 Pride 2024 ended with the traditional Canal Parade. And what a parade it was! Eighty boats joined the festivities, with in slot eight the proud NKI float. This year's Pride theme was Together, something that we can get behind wholeheartedly: Together we fight cancer. ❤️🧡💛💚💙 #NKI #pride2024 #together #canalparade

We are proud of our 120 staff members - from nurses and researchers to those working in finance and other staff services – who will be joining the Canal Parade today. Henri van Luenen, Director of Operations at our research institute, is the driving force behind our participation. “We need to work together to be able to deliver top quality care and research every day, but that does require everybody to feel welcome and safe to contribute. Your background shouldn’t hinder you in that. We want to show that this is a great place to work, where you can be yourself and have fun with your colleagues. We have many people of different nationalities working at our institute, some of whom may be from places where homosexuality is not universally accepted Regardless your background or gender, we all come together at the NKI to work towards the same mission: together we cure cancer. Follow our colleagues during the Canal Parade in the stories on the NKI Instagram account ➡️ https://bit.ly/3Szdnsc #NKI #pride2024 #together #canalparade

“𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬” “As a researcher, I specialize in computer technology like deep learning. Artificial Intelligence could technically be applied anywhere – to solve traffic issues, for one – but I wanted to use it in a place where it could help patients. In my case, that was the Radiotherapy department at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Our idea was to show the computer a large number of MRI scans on which physicians marked tumors. This teaches the network to recognize tumors automatically, and mark them on new scans. This technique isn’t intended to overrule the decisions of the physicians, but they can assist. Tumors won’t need to be drawn manually. Very small tumors remain a challenge, but AI has been making improvements even here. I think that this will be part of the future of radiotherapy. Moving to a different country comes with its own set of challenges. Coming from Spain, it took me some time to get used to Dutch directness. I was lucky to have incredibly nice and helpful supervisors as well as wonderful colleagues. I made a lot of friends here and met likeminded individuals. I still see some of them, even now I’m working as deep learning engineer at Agendia, also in Amsterdam. Roque Rodríguez Outeiral successfully defended his thesis on June 25th. Congratulations! 🎉

Proud of our NKI colleagues who have helped develop this exercise program, impacting the lives of patients with metastatic breast cancer. With Martijn M. Stuiver, Neil Aaronson, Maike Sweegers, Anne May and UMC Utrecht

For years, former Netherlands Cancer Institute group leader Sjaak Neefjes and his current LUMC colleagues have been investigating “forgotten” chemotherapy drugs for effective cancer treatment. In their recent publication in Molecular Cancer, researchers from both the LUMC and the Netherlands Cancer Institute share their remarkable findings on the drug aclarubicin – an effective blood cancer drug used in China and Japan, but not (anymore) in the Netherlands. Aclarubicin is a member of the anthracyclines group. Antracyclines are a group of drugs given as chemotherapy for various cancers. This form of chemotherapy treatment is highly effective but also increases the risk of heart damage. Patients should therefore be treated with anthracyclines only on a limited basis, and if the cancer returns, anthracycline-based treatments are no longer an option. The search for the working mechanism of a “non-toxic” anthracycline called aclarubicin started with the 12-year-old Jeroen Krabbenbos, a boy with relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). His family was looking for a last resort and approached Neefjes. Neefjes: “Aclarubicin was an option but was taken off the European market in 2004 because 'it didn't sell well enough.' Aclarubicin is still used in China and Japan for the treatment of AML, but it has been unclear to what extent heart failure would occur in these patients. Researcher Xiaohang Qiao from the Netherlands Cancer Institute studied various anthracyclines both in the lab and in mice. Qiao: “We focused on how these drugs eliminate cancer cells and their associated side effects. Our studies revealed that aclarubicin can be safely administrated in mice and was well-tolerated, even after prior exposure to cardiotoxic anthracycline treatment.” The researchers and the treating physician therefore contacted dr. Li in Shanghai. Dr. Li treats AML patients with aclarubicin. Thanks to the collaboration with Shanghai, the Neefjes lab gained access to data from patients who had been treated intensively with anthracyclines. The effects of different anthracyclines (including aclarubicin) could thus be compared. The main question was whether aclarubicin is an effective chemotherapy treatment that still can be used in patients with refractory AML, like the 12-year-old Koen. “Based on the data from Shanghai, it appears that about 70% of patients with relapsed/refractory AML responded to aclarubicin-based therapy, and about 30% even recovered. In the Netherlands, the 5-year survival for AML patients is currently 30%. The results of this study show that the survival rate increases to 53% if patients with relapsed/refractory AML are treated with aclarubicin! Read more about the research & find the publication at ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dKazZK77

Researchers conducting animal research to develop new therapies for cancer patients have to be aware of countless factors. Last week, experts from the Netherlands Cancer Institute as well as other institutes published a guideline in Nature Protocols in which the existing knowledge and practical experience is bundled. This offers cancer researchers and animal caretakers even better tools to ensure that their experiments run optimally. Scientists at the Netherlands Cancer Institute research the causes and treatments of cancer, in addition to developing new treatment methods. They often study (cancer) cells that grow in lab dishes (2D), or conduct analyses on 3D structures called organoids. Because cancer is a very complex disease that often involves different cell types, tissues and organs, 2D and 3D culture models fall short in certain stages of the research. That is why they also perform research with mice and rats at the Animal Facility. These animal tests are strongly regulated and require specialized knowledge. Europe has very strict rules: only if there are no other ways to answer a research question, scientists are allowed to use animals. In addition to this rule, various permits are required, as well as protocols and instructions on handling animals in research. Concerning that last factor, Els Hermans, head of the facility, has now bundled all existing knowledge and experience together with her colleagues throughout Europe in a clear guideline that offers tools for anyone working with lab animals in cancer research. “With this step-by-step plan, everyone has all the information required to track animals very accurately,” she says. “This allows them to see which effects they can expect from the tumor growth in advance, how they can detect them, and what they should do next.” Read more about the publication ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eHZCU8it