Laurien Rokegem

Saroma is a rare type of cancer, representing only 1% of solid tumors in adults. It has more than 70 subtypes, with substantial local and distal recurrence of disease. The post-treatment follow-up plan of these patients, including radiology scans and doctor’s visitations, are mostly based on expert opinions rather than on scientific evidence. Consequently, the frequence and content of the follow-up does not match the particular follow-up needs of that specific tumor subtype. Patients has rather been followed up too much, which brings a high socio-economic burden with it, or too less, with a risk of detecting a recurrence or metastasis too late. This follow-up plan needs a more individualized approach with risk stratification for recurrence and metastasis. The aim of my research is to identify predictive risk factors for recurrence and metastasis and implement them into a more specified follow-up strategy per tumor subtype. Because the quality of care is an important risk factor is of recurrence and metastasis, another purpose of my doctoral thesis is to evaluate our level of quality of care through benchmarking with other international hospitals.
 

• Lab address: Department of Human structure and Repair
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• Member of the Consortium for Sarcoma Research Ghent (ConSaRGent)
• Laurien Rokegem is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks