- Position
- Professor of Translational Medical Oncology
- Institute
- Amsterdam UMC
The translational research of professor van Laarhoven focuses on gastrointestinal cancer, specifically esophagogastric and pancreatic cancer. From the very beginning of her career, she has been intrigued by the possibility to elucidate tumor biology in vivo and non-invasively and she has developed a unique research line at the crossroads of medical oncology, radiology/nuclear medicine, and tumor biology. Her group investigates the interplay between tumor cells and stromal cells, with a specific focus on the development of treatment resistance and possible implications for novel therapies. To facilitate this research, she invested in the creation of a large biobank with tumor and blood samples as well as patient derived cell lines and organoids of the patients under study. She is leading several multi-centre investigator initiated clinical trials which include substantial correlative biomarker work.