Karen Zegers received NRS Travel Grant

Catharina M.L. Zegers MSc

Phd-student
Maastro Clinic

“Funding of the NRS grant offered me the opportunity to attend the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) 33 conference. The focus of my PhD research at Maastro-clinic is the use of molecular imaging in oncology using PET imaging.

At this conference I presented our recent results, evaluating the additional value of hypoxia (HX4) PET imaging for NSCLC tumour characterization, during a poster discussion session. I received interesting questions and comments regarding our work and it provided me the opportunity to meet other people with the same scientific interests. Sessions regarding quantitative imaging of hypoxia, imaging biomarkers to measure tumor oxygenation and novel developments in functional imaging for oncology were very interesting and expanded my knowledge about the use of quantitative imaging in oncology.

In addition, there were also lectures about the use of adaptive radiotherapy based on (functional) imaging. These sessions were very informative and inspirational to observe how (hypoxia) PET imaging can be used for patient-specific treatment adaptation in the future.”