prof. Heleen Demeyer (PhD)

Due to the accelerated survival of patients diagnosed with lung cancer, there is an urgent need to shift our focus to reducing symptom burden and optimising quality of life in these patients. Research into rehabilitation of patients during and after treatment has lagged behind other cancer populations. With our team we aim to improve symptom burden and quality of life through rehabilitation strategies patients diagnosed and treated for lung cancer.

Our research team aims: 

• To investigate the impact of cancer treatment on physical function in lung cancer patients and identify treatable traits for rehabilitation

• To study in detail the pattern of cancer-related fatigue throughout the day and across periods of cancer treatment and rehabilitation programs

• To develop and test physical activity and exercise training interventions. We aim to investigate the importance of intensity and amount of physical activity as part of the rehabilitation during and after lung cancer treatment
   

Heleen Demeyer is a physiotherapist with a Master of Science in Rehabilitation sciences and physiotherapy, rehabilitation for Internal Diseases. After finishing her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at KU Leuven (Belgium) she did a 1-year post-doctoral stay at ISGlobal (Barcelona, Spain), followed by two FWO postdoctoral mandates at KULeuven (Belgium).

At this moment she is an associate professor at Ghent University and leads her own research team (Ghent Research team on respiratory rehabilitation and activity) focusing on physical activity and exercise training in chronic respiratory diseases. Her expertise is the measurement of physical activity, investigating its importance and developing and testing interventions to increase physical activity in different populations of respiratory diseases. For lung cancer research, Heleen Demeyer has a strong collaboration with the research team of Prof. Chris Burtin (UHasselt).  
 

• Eva Arents - doctoral fellow
• Francesca Van Hulle - doctoral fellow
   

• The impact of lung surgery, with or without (neo-) adjuvant therapy, on physical functioning in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a scoping review. European Respiratory Review. 2025.
   

• Lab address: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Campus UZ Gent, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, building B3, entrance 46, 9000 Gent
• X (former Twitter): @Demeyer_H
• ORCID
• Heleen Demeyer is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks