18 June 2024
Effective treatment studies benefit from the right infrastructure
Thanks to donations to Support Casper, dozens of clinicians, researchers and laboratory specialists are working on pancreatic cancer projects. Professor Joachim Aerts and Professor Casper van Eijck lead a team investigating effective treatments for several types of cancer. Joachim Aerts explains how a lasting research infrastructure helps that work progress more quickly.
Working with Professor Casper van Eijck
Professor Joachim Aerts heads the Pulmonology department at Erasmus MC and is Professor of Thoracic Oncology. For around twenty years, his research has focused on harnessing the immune system to treat cancer. He says: "Immunotherapy is now part of standard cancer care, but years ago it was not. Few people believed in it then, but I did. That shared interest in the immune system brought me into contact with Professor Casper van Eijck, even though we work on different types of cancer."
The link between lung disease and the pancreas is not immediately obvious, yet mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer have an important feature in common. Joachim explains: "Both tumours contain a large amount of connective tissue. This forms a defensive wall that helps the cancer avoid detection and prevents immune cells from entering the tumour to destroy it. Our research aims to break down that wall so the immune system can attack the cancer cells."
Research and projects
Support Casper currently funds several projects. In the past, each project received separate support and researchers were appointed only for its duration. When it ended, their expertise often moved elsewhere and a new project had to rebuild the team. The new infrastructure changes that. Joachim says: "Researchers remain involved over the longer term, both within and beyond Erasmus MC. They can contribute to several laboratory and patient studies that require expertise in the immune system. Sharing that expertise across the team makes studies faster, stronger and more likely to benefit patients."
The lasting infrastructure is what makes this model distinctive. Specialists in the immune system work across projects and use their shared knowledge to investigate, test and improve new treatments. Casper van Eijck and Joachim Aerts lead the team. "Together, we coordinate the studies and help them achieve the best possible results," says Joachim.
Future
"This infrastructure should allow us to accelerate," says Joachim. "A positive result is not our only objective. Understanding why a treatment works, refining the research and improving the next study are equally valuable." A major publication on dendritic cell therapy was due shortly, supported by findings from the laboratories in which the teams led by Joachim Aerts and Casper van Eijck work.
About Prof. Dr. Joachim Aerts
Joachim Aerts qualified as a doctor at Erasmus University in 1997. He then trained as a specialist in pulmonology and tuberculosis, focusing on thoracic oncology, and completed his training in 2002. After working at several university hospitals, he was appointed Professor of Thoracic Oncology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2014. He joined Erasmus MC full-time in 2017 and became head of its Pulmonology department the following year.
Photo: Mirjam Lems Photography