Medical oncology, treatment of patients with melanoma | phase I clinical trials & precision oncology | immune-related adverse events

At Amsterdam UMC | Cancer Center Amsterdam, I am fortunate to work within a wonderful team of colleagues, in and outside the Department of Medical Oncology. As a medical oncologist caring for patients with melanoma and patients with treatment-refractory solid tumors participating in early (phase I) clinical trials, I strive to provide patients and their families with the best possible care.
An important part of my work involves the treatment, mitigation and prevention of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) resulting from immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). In collaboration with colleagues from the departments of rheumatology, gastroenterology, neurology and dermatology, we study irAEs aiming to better understand, predict, monitor and treat them - so that we can improve quality of life and outcome for our patients.
Other research projects within our designated melanoma center focus on the induction of vitiligo to improve melanoma-specific immunity, on locoregional TLR9 agonist or low-dosed ICI administration to enhance local and systemic immune activation, and on the relation between genomic alterations and the tumor immune contexture in ICI resistance.
Prior to the introduction of immunotherapy as cancer treatment, molecular targeted therapies have proven their worth for patients with advanced solid tumors. As a continuation of my PhD research, I aim to improve the selection of targeted therapy for patients with cancer by studying the application of mass spectrometry-based phosphotyrosine-phosphoproteomics and proteogenomics in precision oncology.