Medical oncologist and Professor Willemien Menke-van der Houven van Oordt (Amsterdam UMC – Cancer Center Amsterdam) has been awarded over 1 million euros in funding from KWF Kankerbestrijding to investigate a novel imaging technique for patients with locally advanced or recurrent hormone-sensitive (ER+) breast cancer.
Selecting the optimal treatment
Each year, more than 5,000 individuals in the Netherlands are diagnosed with this type of breast cancer. Accurate assessment of disease spread is crucial for determining the best treatment. Currently, staging is performed using breast MRI and FDG-PET/CT scans. However, these imaging methods are not fully reliable in 30-50% of cases, which can lead to inappropriate treatment choices such as insufficient or too extensive surgeries potentially leading to (cosmetic) complications.
Introducing the FES-PET/CT scan
Professor Menke-van der Houven van Oordt is leading research into the FES-PET/CT scan, a new imaging modality that uses a tracer specifically targeting the hormone receptor. By performing this scan both before and after neoadjuvant therapy (chemotherapy or hormone therapy), the research team aims to more accurately determine the most suitable treatment for each patient. Additionally, they are developing a predictive model to identify the optimal imaging strategy for individual patients.
“With this approach, we aim to prevent unnecessary interventions and further improve care for people with ER+ breast cancer,” says Professor Willemien Menke-van der Houven van Oordt.