Our research activities are centred around MRI, brain cancer and radiation therapy. Imaging, such as MRI, is crucial in many aspects of cancer treatment from workup, target definition to assessing treatment effects. In our research activities, we use MR imaging to improve target definition for radiotherapy, to automatically define normal tissue structures for use in radiotherapy. We also use MRI to follow radiation induced side-effects to gain insight into how to optimise treatment with the minimal patient side-effects.

Target definition
Current target definition adds a 2 cm margin around the macroscopic brain tumour in order to include any microscopic tumour spread that is difficult to visualize using current imaging. It is known from recurrence location mapping that the tumour does not grow in all directions equally, but rather tends to grow along the white matter tracts. This knowledge means that the current isotropic target concept includes a lot of unnecessary healthy brain tissue and hence unnecessary radiation side-effects. Our research activities aim here to replace the current target concept and design a target concept that includes these migrational spread patterns, advanced imaging and clinically relevant information.

Normal tissue toxicity
The consequences of radiation to the brain leads to long-term structural and vascular changes resulting in vascular events and cognitive decline. Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging, we aim to establishing a link between demyelination of the white matter fibres, cortical thinning and vascular changes and radiation induced cognitive decline. Identifying this link early in the course of treatment will allow for more individualised support to help the patients, who desperately need the extra care. It may also give insight into which region of the brain is more important to reduce radiation dose to.

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