Research projects
Clipless MR-eye guided planning and follow-up for proton therapy of uveal melanoma
Principal Investigators
- Dr. Jan Willem Beenakker (LUMC)
- Prof. dr. Just Herder (TU Delft)
- Dr. Emine Kilic (Erasmus MC)
- Prof. dr. Coen Rasch (HollandPTC)
Proton therapy is next to brachytherapy, stereotactic photon irradiation and enucleation a major treatment option for local treatment of uveal melanoma.
Cone-beam spectral CT: enabling in-situ adaptation in proton therapy.
Principal investigator:
- Dr. ir. Dennis Schaart (TU Delft)
The main objective is to initiate a research program targeted at the development, implementation, and clinical validation of cone-beam spectral CT (CBSCT) as an ideal image guidance modality for image-guided online-adaptive proton therapy.
Combine optical, MRI and histopathological strengths to prevent unnecessary blindness
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Jan Willem Beenakker (LUMC)
Intraocular malignancies are life-threatening ocular conditions. Unfortunately, for the majority of these patients outcomes such as visual function and survival have not improved over the last decades, e.g. 50% of patients die within 10 years and one third of the eyes become blind within 5 years after proton therapy.
Defining optimal strategies for diagnosis, treatment and treatment evaluation of chordomas and chondrosarcomas of the axial skeleton
Principal Investigator
- Dr. Krol (LUMC)
Proton therapy for chordomas (CH) and chondrosarcomas (CS) of the axial skeleton is reimbursed as standard of care in the Netherlands.
Flash beyond doubt, and beyond
Principal Investigators
- Dr. Steven Habraken (Erasmus MC)
- Dr. ir. Dennis Schaart (TU Delft)
- Prof. dr. Coen Rasch (LUMC)
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (HollandPTC)
Despite the superior physical properties of proton beams and image guidance, fractionated proton therapy still has a limited therapeutic bandwidth and may come with severe side effects.
Fully-automated multi-criterial planning for intensity-modulated proton therapy for clinical practice
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Coen Rasch (LUMC)
- Prof. dr. Ben Heijmen (Erasmus MC)
Treatment plan generation for intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) is highly complex, especially if it includes selection of favourable beam geometries.
Human-centric AI for contouring in head-and-neck cancer therapy.
Principal Investigators:
- Dr. ir. Marius Staring (LUMC)
- Dr. Anna Vilanova (TU Delft)
- Dr. René van Egmond (TU Delft)
The aim of this project is to develop human-centric deep learning (artificial intelligence) methods to quickly and accurately locate and segment the tumor and organs-at-risk (OARs) based on planning as well as daily imaging.
Hypofractionated, dose-redistributed radiotherapy with protons and photons to combat radiation-induced immunosuppression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Principal Investigator
- Dr. Jos Elbers (Erasmus MC)
Radiotherapy for advanced-stage head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) results in an unfavorable 5-year overall survival of 40%, and there is a strong biological rationale for improving outcome by combinatorial treatment with immunotherapy.
Influence of intrinsic biological variability on the outcomes of proton radiotherapy in head and neck cancer
Principal Investigators:
- Dr. Dik van Gent (Erasmus MC)
- Dr. ir. Danny Lathouwers (TU Delft)
- Dr. Jeremy Brown (TU Delft)
- Dr. Danny Lathouwers (TU Delft)
The main aim of this project is to identify biological factors that influence the outcomes of proton radiotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and use them to develop a predictive framework to estimate cellular/tissue response as a function of linear energy transfer (LET) and dose (rate).
Improved healthy-tissue sparing by automated daily online plan adaptation in proton therapy for head and neck cancer
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (Erasmus MC)
- Dr. Zoltán Perkó (TU Delft)
The project’s goal is to reduce the probability of side effects in Proton Therapy (PT) for head and neck cancer by investigating and clinically implementing automated daily online plan adaptation.
Improving toxicity modelling, patient selection and clinical outcome of proton therapy in low grade glioma.
Principal investigator:
- Dr. Alejandra Méndez Romero (Erasmus MC)
The overall goal of this project is to gain insight into radiation-induced toxicity and into the effect of proton dose distributions through biological modelling. This knowledge will better define the role of proton therapy in reducing side effects in patients with low grade glioma (LGG).
New methodology for developing biomarkers of radiation-induced toxicity in brain tumour patients based on advanced MR imaging of the microvasculature and white matter microstructure.
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Frans Vos (TU Delft)
The aim is to create new MR imaging and image analysis techniques for the development of novel biomarkers of radiation toxicity to solve several limitations of currently available methods.
On-line adaptive proton therapy for cervical cancer to reduce the impact on morbidity and the immune system
Principal Investigator:
- Prof. dr. Remi Nout (Erasmus MC)
- Dr. Jeremy Schiphof-Godart (Erasmus MC)
PT can substantially reduce the unwanted exposure of OAR to radiation dose for women with locally advanced cervical cancer.
Personalised radiotherapy for vestibular schwannomas
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Erik Hensen (LUMC)
Vestibular schwannomas are benign nerve sheath tumors that develop from vestibular nerves in the cerebellopontine angle. Although benign, they may cause serious symptoms, comprising hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance disturbance. Larger tumors may cause facial paresis, facial numbness or pain, elevated intracranial pressure and compression of the brain stem.
Precision of proton therapy increased by advanced robustness analysis
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (Erasmus MC)
- Dr. Zoltán Perkó (TU Delft)
PEARL aims to increase the precision of IMPT by providing end users (e.g. radiation oncologists) the practical tools to optimally balance tumor control probability and dose conformity in the presence of residual treatment uncertainties.
Probabilistic optimization and planning
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Zoltan Perko (TU Delft)
- Prof.dr. Mischa Hoogeman (Erasmus MC, HollandPTC)
The purpose of the cooperation is to jointly facilitate the scientific development of methods for probabilistic optimization. In WP1 TU Delft will develop techniques for computationally feasible probabilistic optimization.
Proton therapy for ocular melanoma: 3D imaging-driven treatment planning based on patient preferences
Principal Investigator:
- Prof. dr. Coen Rasch (LUMC)
Choroidal melanoma is the most common ocular malignancy in adults, incidence is around 1:100.000 in the Netherlands.
Proton-DDR: elucidating mechanisms of proton-induced dna damage response and molecular signatures to enhance tumor control
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Marcel Tijsterman (LUMC)
- Dr. Jeroen Essers (Erasmus MC)
- Prof. dr. Roland Kanaar (Erasmus MC)
- Prof. dr. Marcel Reinders (TU Delft)
We hypothesize that proton and photon irradiation lead to distinctly different biological effects that can offer new opportunities for clinical applications.
Proton-on-chip for radiotherapy of glioblastoma
Principal Investigator
- Dr. Angelo Accardo (TU Delft)
The development of physiological engineered in vitro models assumes a pivotal role in the understanding and treatment of diseases.
Proton versus photon therapy for esophageal cancer
HPTC Principal Investigators
- Dr. Hedwig Blommestein (HollandPTC)
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (HollandPTC)
The ambition of protect is to conduct the first ever multi-country European phase III RCT in proton therapy and to demonstrate the value of proton therapy as an advanced form of cancer treatment delivering cancer cure with fewer complications and side effects.
Real time in-vivo dosimetry for eye, brain and head and neck proton irradiation.
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Coen Rasch (LUMC)
- dr.ir. Dennis Schaart (TU Delft)
Proton radiotherapy is not only more precise in depth but also more sensitive for changes in e.g. anatomy of the patient during subsequent days of treatment. Current practice in photon radiotherapy is to measure the exit dose and back-calculate the dose given to the patient.
The HollandPTC proton therapy HTA value proposition
Principal Investigators:
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (HollandPTC)
- Dr. Hedwig Blommestein (HollandPTC, EUR)
Due to a very local dose deposition, proton therapy is expected to provide less dose to the surrounding normal tissues and therefore a significant reduction in (long term) side effects over current standard of care, photon therapy.
Towards a sustainable RTT network
Principal Investigators:
- Dr. Harmen Bijward (InHolland)
- Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (HollandPTC)
- Prof. Morten Høyer (Aarhus University)
- Prof. dr. Esther Troost (Technical University Dresden)
- Dr. Bastosz Bak (Wielkopolskie Centrum Onkologii)
The main objective of this project is to harmonise the proton therapy planning and delivery practises of rtts and dosimetrists in a way that all patients across Europe receive the best possible proton therapy for the treatment of their cancers (optimised prom/prem).
Understanding the origin of small tandem duplications and other break-induced mutations in cancer
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Joost Schimmel (LUMC)
The aim is to understand the formation of small tandem duplications (td’s) at chromosomal breaks and to study the contribution of this novel end-joining activity to different genome rearrangements observed in cancer.
3D engineered brain cancer micro-environments
Principal Investigator:
- Dr. Angelo Accardo (TU Delft)
Glioblastoma is a brain tumour and the most aggressive cancer type. The incidence is about 2-3 cases per 100.000 people per year. These patients have a poor prognosis, about 15-17 months after diagnosis, even after resection of the tumour followed by radiotherapy (also known as x-ray therapy) and adjuvant temozolomide.