dr. Franceska Dedeurwaerdere (MD)

Detection of microsatellite instability (MSI) is important in the classification and treatment of colon-, gastric and endometrial tumors and as tumoragnostic prediction for immunotherapy response. Sequencing can be used for the detection of MSI, but has not been studied/vaidated in the Belgian context. We look into the use of sequencing for routine screening for MSI on paraffin-embedded biopsies (FFPE) of solid tumors. 
In diagnostics of brain tumors, sarcomas and carcinomas of unknown primary origin, the use of the tumoral epigentic profile, obtained by methylation-profiling is emerging. The gold standard for  methylation-profiling, with the  Illumina Methylation EPIC 850K BeadChip platform generates a methylation-profile, a copy number variation (CNV)-plot and information on the methylation-status of specific genpromoters eg. MGMT and MLH1. The groupe of Prof. Nico Callewaert (UGent-VIB) recently developed a new, cheaper technique for methylation-profiling by cf-RRBS (cell-free Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing). We investigate wether cfRRBS on FFPE generates comparable results as the golden standard regarding methylation-profile based tumorclassification, CNV-profile and methylation status of specific genpromoters. 
 

• Trainee in pathology (1996-2002)
• Staff pathologist, Clinique de l’Europe (2002-2003)
• Staff pathologist, Imeldaziekenhuis Bonheiden (2003-2009)
• Head of Department, Pathology Lab Imeldaziekenhuis Bonheiden (2007-2009)
• Staff pathologist, “Heilig-Hartziekenhuis Roeselare-Menen (AZ Delta)” and Sint-Andriesziekenhuis Tielt, 2010-present
• Head of Department,  Pathology Lab, AZ Delta-Sint Andries Tielt (2010-2024)
• President, Cooperative Society for Pathology (2014-present)
• Doctoral Fellow, Department of Pathology, Ghent University Hospital (2020-present)
   

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• Department of Pathology, PAD-building, entrance 23, Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium