Scientific Annual Report 2022

29-03-2023

With great pleasure we present the Netherlands Cancer Institute's 2022 Scientific Annual Report. In this report, we hope to convey how we have contributed to improving the prospects of cancer patients and to understanding the biology of cancer, in line with our credo A cure for every cancer and excellent care for every patient.

In all five of our research themes, and very often in a multidisciplinary setting and in close collaboration with the clinic and with colleagues all over the world, our researchers have again made progress in generating new knowledge and bringing this knowledge to the clinic and to society.

Read the Scientific Annual Report 2022

Just a few of our highlights of the year 2022

Major medical breakthroughs almost always come from discoveries in fundamental research. In 2022, our researchers made the discovery that a cancer cell can strangely enough produce new proteins without being instructed to do so by its DNA code. Since their strangeness betrays these tumor cells to the immune system, this may lead to new forms of immunotherapy.

Researcher Abhijeet Pataskar won the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award for his discovery within this research

The year 2022 saw the results of the TIL trial, the world's first comparative phase III trial with cellular therapy for metastatic melanoma. Our researchers showed that cellular therapy using the patient's own T cells is an extremely powerful immunotherapy, which still offers a high chance of improvement, even if prior immunotherapies have failed. The TIL therapy is now covered by basic health insurance in the Netherlands.

Far fewer new drugs are developed for rare cancers than for other tumors, in part because large clinical trials are often not possible for this group. However, when we look at the patient’s tumor DNA, the leads for treatment turn out to be similar to those for common cancers. This was discovered in the DRUP trial, in which patients with a rare molecular tumor profile are treated with off-label drugs developed for other cancer types.

Scientific Annual Report 2022

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