"It all started with a part-time job during my medical studies, in the surgical department where I assisted Professor Beets with the planning for the Watch-and-Wait study. Because it would be another year before I would start my clinical rotations, I asked him if he happened to know someone abroad with whom I could gain experience before then. He did know someone at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. I was involved in the OPRA trial there in 2019 and 2022. We investigated whether it would be safe not to operate immediately on patients with rectal cancer, as surgery often leads to a stoma. We found that in the long term, nearly half of the patients do not need to have surgery. Waiting and regular monitoring are sufficient. It is still a challenge to determine which patients have the greatest chance of organ preservation, but this way patients at least have a choice. My choice for New York turned out surprisingly well for me. I experienced the major COVID-19 lockdown, the Black Lives Matter protests, and more. Initially, I didn’t expect to get my PhD based on this research."
Floris will defend his thesis on April 12.
prof. dr. G.L. Beets & prof. dr. J. Garcia-Aguilar
N.F.M. Kok