Uulke Van der Heide

Group leader, Professor at Leiden UMC

Imaging technology in radiotherapy

The focus of research in my group is the use of MRI for radiotherapy. This involves improvement of target definition, the use of MRI-guidance for accurate dose delivery and the study of MRI biomarkers for outcome after radiotherapy.

Target definition based on multi-parametric quantitative MRI is used in prostate cancer to boost the dose to the visible tumor inside the gland. This concept is tested in the phase III randomized FLAME trial and the phase I/II hypoFLAME trials.

MR-guided radiotherapy is studied both in external-beam radiotherapy using the MR-linac currently available at NKI, and in MR-guided brachytherapy. For radiotherapy of rectal cancer, we study the potential of MRI guidance for dose escalation to the visible tumor so as to increase the likelihood of organ sparing.

The MR-linac is particularly useful for MRI biomarker discovery studies. Patients receive an MRI during each treatment fraction and daily imaging of quantitative sequences is feasible without extending the treatment time. Within the MR-linac consortium, multi-center studies are conducted to establish the predictive value of quantitative MRI techniques for tumor control as well as toxicity. This will be used to develop treatment concepts that daily adapt dose based on the changing characteristics of the cancer.

At August 1, 2015, I was appointed professor at the department of radiation oncology of the Leiden UMC, in the field of imaging technology in radiation oncology. I held my inaugural address on June 10, 2016, with the title ‘what we see, what we don’t see, and what we do with that’.

I am active as teacher in the ESTRO school and act as editor of ‘Radiotherapy and Oncology’.

Work experience

2015-now :
Senior Group leader (full professor level)
and Medical Physicist Department of Radiation
Oncology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2015-now:
Professor ‘Imaging technology in Radiation Oncology’
Department of Radiation Oncology, Leiden UMC and Leiden University, the Netherlands
2011-2015:
Group leader (associate professor level)
and Medical Physicist Department of Radiation
Oncology. The Netherlands Cancer Institute
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2003-2011:
Medical physicist, Department of Radiotherapy,
University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands
1999-2003:
Residency Medical Physics in Radiotherapy
University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands
1996-1999:
Post-doctoral research fellow
Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; group Y.E. Goldman
1994-1996:
Post-doctoral research fellow
Department of Medical Physiology and Sports
Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands; group E.L. de Beer
1993-1994:
Post-doctoral research fellow
Debije Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands,
group E. Vlieg
1989-1993:
PhD student
Department of Biophysics, Utrecht University,
the Netherlands supervisors Y.K. Levine, I.P. Trayer.
Awarded Cum Laude

Additional activities

Professor of imaging technology in radiation oncology, Leiden University
Editor of 'Radiotherapy and Oncology'
Member of ICRU committee on image guided radiation therapy using mri-linear accelerators
(MRGRT)
Member of ICRU committee on dose prescription, reporting and recording in advanced
optimization strategies: application to dose painting and robust planning
Member of the CRUK RadNet Glasgow Scientific Advisory Board
Director of the annual ESTRO course ‘In-room MRI-guided radiotherapy’
Chair, ESTRO Scientific Council

Uulke Van der Heide

Group leader, Professor at Leiden UMC

Functional maps of a genomic locus reveal confinement of an enhancer by its target gene

Case-Case Genome-Wide Analyses Identify Subtype-Informative Variants That Confer Risk for Breast Cancer.

Team

Fields of expertise

Radiotherapy

MRI

Prostate cancer

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