Radiotherapy Brussels

In the month May, Sara-Lise Busschaert presented two papers on international conferences:

• ESTRO 2023 (12-16 May, Vienna – Austria):
  ‘Introduction of ultra-hypofractionation in breast cancer: implications for costs and resource use’
  by Sara-Lise Busschaert, Koen Putman, Mark De Ridder
  abstract
• SMDM 2023 (21-23 May, Berlin – Germany):
  ‘The application of deep inspiration breath hold in left-sided breast radiotherapy: a balance between side effects and costs’
  by Sara Lise Busschaert, Koen Putman, Thierry Gevaert, Cristina Ferro Teixeira, Mark De Ridder
  abstract

Congratulations on this work!

Radiotherapy is a cornerstone for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Tumor cells present in an environment lacking oxygen (hypoxia) are resistant, leading to patient relapse. Altering redox homeostasis and inducing cell death of hypoxic cancer cells is a promising strategy to overcome radioresistance. In this study, redox homeostasis was targeted, and cell death (ferroptosis) was induced in colorectal cancer cells by treating them with the FDA-approved drug sulfasalazine. Overall, sulfasalazine treatment improved the response to radiotherapy in a model system of human colorectal cancer cells.

Lisa’s publication reveals sulfasalazine as a promising radiosensitizer of hypoxic human colorectal cancer through the disturbance of redox homeostasis and ferroptosis induction.

L. Kerkhove, F. Geirnaert, A.L. Rifi, K.L. Law, A. Gutiérrez, I. Oudaert, C. Corbet, T. Gevaert, I. Dufait, M. De Ridder. Repurposing Sulfasalazine as a Radiosensitizer in Hypoxic Human Colorectal Cancer. Cancers (2023). 15(8):2363.

https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15082363

CT scan images and their Dworak tumor regression grade can now be predicted in a more automated way by the use of customized random forests and give fairly good predictions (67% accuracy).

The Dworak tumor regression grade is a typical diagnostic tool to assess the tumor response of colorectal cancer patients. However, the Dworak grade is determined by a pathologist by inspection of the tumor biopsy without a dedicated measurement instrument. This work will further improve training and support for scoring the Dworak’s in a more correct manner.

C. Raets, C. El Aisati, M. De Ridder, A. Sermeus, K. Barbé. An Evolutionary Random Forest to measure the Dworak tumor regression grade applied to colorectal cancer. Measurement (2022). 205:112131, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2022.112131.

At the Royal Statistical Society Belgium meeting of 20-21 October 2022 one of our PhD students obtained the best poster award for junior researchers for his outstanding work entitled:

Factor analysis to unravel the biological meaning of radiomic features

Promotors: Prof. Dr. De Ridder & Prof. Dr. Barbé