Michiel van den Brekel

NKI

In short, Michiel van den Brekels' research entails the following: 

Genomics-assisted radiomic machine learning-based models to enable patient outcome prediction for personalized treatment in head and neck squamous cell cancer

This project will be carried out in the Netherlands Cancer Institute with generous funding by the Hanarth Fonds. Previously we have developed models, using genetic as well as radiomic signatures, to predict outcome of patients treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. It turns out that specific, pathway related genetic signatures can predict response to for example radiotherapy or chemotherapy. This knowledge will eventually lead to more personalized treatment. The radiological features, are so far less well explained by biological processes. The primary goal of this project will be to build multimodal models (combining multiple imaging modalities and genetic data), and signatures for use in developing outcome prediction models in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. One of the main aspects of the imaging biomarker search will be investigating the link between molecular tumour biology characteristics, as captured by genomic data, and the tumour morphological phenotype, as quantified by the imaging data.