dr. Deyna Keppens (MD)

Pediatric sarcomas present a specific therapeutic challenge. This rare cancer group encompasses many subtypes and continues to show poor outcomes. While treatment in other cancer fields has advanced, options for sarcoma have essentially remained unchanged over the past three decades despite efforts to improve prognosis. The overall five-year survival rate remains 65–75%. In metastatic disease, it falls below 30%. Therefore, it is crucial to explore and define innovative therapeutic strategies for pediatric sarcomas, including rhabdomyosarcoma, to improve overall survival.
In this PhD, I will investigate novel combination therapies, beyond single agents, aiming to exploit targeted drugs together with specific biomarkers to achieve synergistic effects and avoid resistance. Instead of focusing only on one pathway, this project seeks to identify combinations that integrate diverse mechanisms, including inhibitors already approved for soft tissue sarcoma and additional novel compounds guided by biomarker profiles.
The ultimate goal is to provide novel combination treatment options by establishing patient avatars from pediatric tumors, enabling preclinical testing of innovative biomarker-driven combination therapies with the potential for direct clinical translation and implementation in pediatric cancer patients.
 

• 2016 - 2022: Master in Medicine, Ghent University
• Sept - Dec 2021: Internship, CHU de Toulouse
• 2023 - present: Master in Specialist Medicine: Pediatric Medicine, Ghent University
   

• Lab address: Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG), Medical Research Building 1 (MRB1), 2nd floor, campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10,  entrance 34, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
• Pediatric Precision Oncology Lab Ghent
• Center for Medical Genetics Ghent
• LinkedIn
• ORCID 
• Member of the Consortium for Sarcoma Research Ghent (ConSaRGhent)
• Deyna Keppens is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks