Principal investigator prof. Mischa Hoogeman
“With proton therapy you want to avoid as much dose as possible on healthy tissues. One way to achieve this is by continuously adapting the radiation plan to the changing anatomy and biology of the patient. In my role as a researcher and medical physicist I research and implement the methods and tools to do this in a clinically meaningful way.”
Research focus
The overarching aim of the research is to widen the therapeutic window by developing clinically significant high-precision and adaptive radiation therapy technology, bringing it to clinic, and evaluating its value. My short term ambition is to move forward the field of high-precision proton therapy in the direction of real-time online-adaptation to account for daily anatomical changes of the target and healthy tissue. Another important development is that of ultra-high dose proton therapy (FLASH), which will not only affect motion management but can also reduce the radiation sensitivity of healthy tissue without affecting tumor cell killing. It is my believe that in the longer term major advances lie in the development of precision radiotherapy. Precision radiotherapy should replace the current practice, i.e. that every tumor is treated with the same dose and also that the balance between tumor dose and sparing of healthy tissue is considered equal for each patient. Dose prescription based on biological parameters of the tumor and healthy tissue, clinical characteristics of the patient, and adaptation to early therapy response has the promise to further widen the therapeutic window.
Scientific career
Current positions and membership:
- Professor in High-precision and Adaptive radiotherapy at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (2017 -), Delft University of Technology (2019 -), and Medical Delta (2020 -)
- Chair of Medical Physics and Instrumentation at Radiotherapy department of Erasmus MC (2015 -)
- Chair of Medical Physics and Informatics at HollandPTC (2018 -)
- Member of Research Program Board HollandPTC
- Member of Scientific Advisory Board Daniel Den Hoed Society
- Associate Editor of Physica Medica – European Journal of Medical Physics (EJMP)
- Course director ESTRO course: IMRT/VMAT and Other Highly Conformal Techniques in Practice
- Faculty member ESTRO courses: Clinical Practice and Implementation of SBRT and Physics Research Masterclass
- Lecturer of BSc Clinical Technology, MSc Technical Medicine, and Medical Physics course TU Delft
Past positions and education
- Medical Physicist at Erasmus MC (2006 -)
- Medical Physicist in training NKI-AVL, MCA, Erasmus MC (2002 – 2006)
- Postdoctoral fellow at NKI-AVL, Amsterdam (1998 – 2004)
- D. with honors, Leiden University, “Surfaces in motion: A variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study” (1998)
- D. student at Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics of the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research (1994 – 1998)
- Sc. Experimental Physics with honors, University of Amsterdam (1994)