PI: Geke Hospers, MD PhD

Position: Professor
Contact: email
Phone number: +31 (0)50 361 2775
Publications: Pubmed

Biography

Prof. Dr. Geke Hospers, MD PhD, is a medical oncologist at the department of Medical Oncology of the UMCG. She studied biochemistry and medicine. She obtained her PhD degree in 1989, with the thesis ‘Mechanisms and circumvention of cellular resistance to cisplatin’ at the department of Medical Oncology of the UMCG. During her Dutch Cancer Foundation (KWF) fellowship she worked on gene therapy topics in several labs in the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium and was trained as a medical oncologist. She co-supervised 11 PhD students, and is intensively involved in teaching medical students during their MSc. Furthermore, she coordinates national and international clinical studies, in collaboration with many multidisciplinary research groups within the UMCG and nationwide. In 2011 she was appointed as professor at the Department of Medical Oncology. Her current research is (among others) funded by the KWF. It focuses at sensitizing resistant tumors for drug therapy, genome based therapies and developing innovative imaging techniques to visualize drug targets.

Research focus

Exploring innovative imaging techniques to visualize drug targets.

In the UMCG, at the departments of Medical Oncology, Pathology, Nuclear Medicine and Pharmacy, extensive experience exists with regard to development and clinical use of various agents for molecular imaging. Molecular imaging is defined as the visualization, characterization and measurement of biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in humans and other living systems. Agents used for molecular imaging can be anti-bodies or other targeted drugs, radiolabeled with a radioactive isotope that allows whole body visualization with the positron emission tomography (PET) technique. In cancer, molecular imaging can be used to detect several relevant targets in vivo, such as human Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in the tumor environment and the Estrogen Receptor (ER). These novel imaging techniques are suitable for answering clinically relevant questions, such as presence and location of tumor lesions, whether or not a particular target for treatment is preserved during the course of the disease, and drug dosing. With 111In-bevacizumab we could visualize lymph node metastasis in stage III/IV melanoma patients. Future imaging studies in melanoma concentrate on BRAF and immune activation. In hormone positive tumors the Estrogen Receptor is an important target. The radiolabeled estrogen derivate 16beta-[18F]fluoroestradiol (FES), the ER expression can be visualized with PET. Different studies are performed to determine the clinical value of FES-PET.

Group members

Kees Bisschop, PhD student
Rob van den Brom, PhD student
Karin Tamas, PhD student
Jolien Tjalma, PhD student
Clarieke Venema, PhD student
Thijs Wind, PhD student

Projects in which Geke Hospers is involved

KWF-grant RUG 2000-2310: Non-invasive monitoring of herpes simplex thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) activity using positron emission tomography (PET) for the optimization of clinical HSV-tk therapy. Projectleaders: E.F.J. de Vries en G.A.P. Hospers.
Research grant in 2000 Fornix BioScience NV. To study genome based therapy and to performe the clinical study 'Treatment with intramuscular vascular endothelial growth factor gene compared with placebo for patients with diabetes mellitus and critical limb ischemia: a double-blind randomized trial'.
CKTO 2004-01: Preoperative chemo-radiotherapy regimen with capecitabine and oxaliplatin in advanced rectal cancer. A study of the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group (REX study DCCG 0301). A phase I-II study. Projectleader.
Research grant 2007 Roche Nederland BV - Molecular imaging of angiogenesis
CTMM 2009: Molecular breast cancer, imaging for diagnoses and therapeutic decision making (MAMMOTH). Co-Work package leader of the work packages 'Preclinical imaging with hormone and growth factor receptor targeting ligands' and 'Clinical implementation of molecular imaging of hypoxia, angiogenesis, hormone & growth factor receptors'
KWF 2010: 3 year research grant A.G.T. Terwisscha van Scheltinga: 'In vivo analysis of IGF-1R, ER and VEGF expression in trastuzumab resistant breast cancer before and after drug intervention.'
KWF grant 2010 RUG 2009-4529: FES-PET as a predictive biomarker for response to estrogen therapy in metastatic breast cancer patients. Project leader, together with E.G.E. de Vries and E.F.J. de Vries (Department of Nuclear Medicine).
KWF grant RUG 2011-4997: Randomized multicenter phase III study of short course radiation therapy combined with pre-operative chemotherapy in primary rectal cancer with high risk of failing locally and/or systemically compared to standard preoperative chemoradiotherapy. RAPIDO: Rectal cancer And Pre-operative Induction therapy followed by Dedicated Operation. Project leader, together with B. van Etten en C.J.H. van de Velde.
KWF Alpe d’HuZes Grant RUG 2012-5400: “Towards patient tailored cancer treatment supported by molecular imaging”. IMPACT: IMaging PAtients for Cancer drug selection. Co-projectleader.

Selected Publications

Shapiro J, van Lanschot JJ, Hulshof MC, van Hagen P, van Berge Henegouwen MI, Wijnhoven BP, van Laarhoven HW, Nieuwenhuijzen GA, Hospers GA, Bonenkamp JJ, Cuesta MA, Blaisse RJ, Busch OR, Ten Kate FJ, Creemers GJ, Punt CJ, Plukker JT, Verheul HM, Bilgen EJ, van Dekken H, van der Sangen MJ, Rozema T, Biermann K, Beukema JC, Piet AH, van Rij CM, Reinders JG, Tilanus HW, Steyerberg EW, van der Gaast A; CROSS study group. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus surgery versus surgery alone for oesophageal or junctional cancer (CROSS): long-term results of a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Oncol. 16:1090-8, 2015.

van Kruchten M, de Vries EG, Glaudemans AW, van Lanschot MC, van Faassen M, Kema IP, Brown M, Schröder CP, de Vries EF, Hospers GA. Measuring residual estrogen availability during fulvestrant therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Discov. 5:72-81, 2015.

Larkin J, Del Vecchio M, Ascierto PA, Krajsova I, Schachter J, Neyns B, Espinosa E, Garbe C, Sileni VC, Gogas H, Miller WH Jr, Mandal à M, Hospers GA, Arance A, Queirolo P, Hauschild A, Brown MP, Mitchell L, Veronese L, Blank CU. Vemurafenib in patients with BRAF(V600) mutated metastatic melanoma: an open-label, multicenter, safety study. Lancet Oncol. 15:436-44, 2014.

Honing J, Smit JK, Muijs CT, Burgerhof JG, de Groot JW, Paardekooper G, Muller K, Woutersen D, Legdeur MJ, Fiets WE, Slot A, Beukema JC, Plukker JT, Hospers GA. A comparison of carboplatin and paclitaxel with cisplatinum and 5-fluorouracil in definitive chemoradiation in esophageal cancer patients. Ann Oncol. 25:638-43, 2014.

van Kruchten M, de Vries EG, Brown M, de Vries EF, Glaudemans AW, Dierckx Ra, Schröder CP, Hospers GA. PET imaging of oestrogen receptors in patients with breast cancer. Lancet Oncol. 14:e465-75, 2013.

van Dijk TH, Tamas K, Beukema JC, Beets GL, Gelderblom AJ, de Jong KP, Nagtegaal ID, Rutten HJ, van de Velde CJ, Wiggers T, Hospers GA, Havenga K. Evaluation of short-course radiotherapy followed by neoadjuvant bevacizumab, capecitabine, and oxaliplatin and subsequent radical surgical treatment in primary stage IV rectal cancer. Ann Oncol. 24:1762-9, 2013.

van Hagen P, Hulshof MC, van Lanschot JJ, Steyerberg EW, van Berge Henegouwen MI, Wijnhoven BP, Richel DJ, Nieuwenhuijzen GA, Hospers GA, Bonenkamp JJ, Cuesta MA, Blaisse RJ, Busch QR, ten Kate FJ, Creemers GJ, Punt CJ, Plukker JT, Verheul HM, Spillenaar Bilgen EJ, van Dekken H, van der Sangen MJ, Rozema T, Biermann K, Beukema JC, Piet AH, van Rij CM, Reinders JG, Tilanus HW, van der Gaast A; CROSS Group. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy for esophageal or junctional cancer. N Engl J Med. 366:2074-84, 2012.

Hospers GA , Schaapveld M, Nortier JW, Wils J, van Bochove A, de Jong RS, Creemers GJ, Erjavec Z, de Gooyer DJ, Slee PH, Gerrits CJ, Smit JM, Mulder NH. Randomised phase III study of biweekly 24-h infusion of high-dose 5FU with folinic acid and oxaliplatin versus monthly plus 5-FU/folinic acid in first-line treatment or advanced colorectal cancer. Ann Oncol. 17:443-9, 2006.