"I started training as a urologist last March. One of the most interesting patient groups I see while working in this field consists of young men with testicular cancer. These patients are mostly between 20 and 35 years old and tend to bury their heads in the sand about their health. Thankfully we can effectively treat testicular cancer, but because these patients are very young, it is extra important to thoroughly investigate this treatment. That's what I worked on during my PhD research. Patients in whom we still find metastases in the lymph nodes after chemotherapy turn out to benefit most from the surgical removal of all lymph nodes instead of just the affected one(s). In addition, we found that giving multiple rounds of chemotherapy lowers the risk of developing testicular cancer again in the other testicle. I hope that we will be able to further centralize care for this relatively small group of about 800 patients per year in the near future. We can acquire more knowledge through collaboration. Maybe we can even discover new markers for metastases!"
Joost will defend his thesis on September 27.
Promotor(s)
prof. dr. J.L.H.R. Bosch and prof. dr. S. Horenblas
Copromotor(s)
dr. R.P. Meijer