FACILITIES AND RESOURCES
Radiology and nuclear medicine
Radiology and nuclear medicine departments are an important part of the new drug discovery process. Together, they are able to perform PET and CT scans to detect and diagnose lesions, as well as to measure how severe they are. In phase 1 and 2 clinical research, we assess the efficacy of a drug, and we are able to measure biomarkers and clinical or molecular research endpoints. We can also monitor how effective the treatment is and how the drug distributes in the body with medical imaging. For our patients in early phase clinical trials, our team at the radiology department is highly experienced in performing serial biopsies. This means that tumor biopsy can be performed before starting a treatment, during treatment and, if needed, at progressive disease. This can be used for all kinds of biomarker analysis, molecular testing and response evaluation for cancer diagnostics. This allows us to measure which patients are reacting well to the treatment and monitoring the safety of a new drug.
The nuclear medicine department is focused on research performance. This includes the introduction of new tracers, labeling new drugs, biodistribution evaluation, theranostics and dosimetry. This can be performed in an academic collaboration setting with pharmaceutical companies. One example is the zirconium labeling of (bispecific) antibodies to study biodistribution of drugs throughout the body. It can also be used to study tumor accumulation using different dosages and dose forms.
At EDDC, nuclear medicine can be used to identify the presence, or absence, of specific receptors or molecular changes. It gives us a chance to select treatments for patients based on the molecular profile of their tumor. It is the way forward to personalized medicine, where patients receive treatment for their tumor type with specific characteristics. It also helps us to identify tumor patterns that might need additional or their own clinical research.
Pathology and general clinical laboratories
In collaboration with the pathology and molecular diagnostics departments, we develop new targeted treatments for patients with specific mutations. The pathology team investigates tissue or samples taken from patients during an operation, biopsy, or puncture.
The biopsies can be sent in slices to a specialized and trained PA group that will study the characteristics of the tumor. The samples could be analyzed through several laboratory techniques, such as tissue staining or investigating proteins, DNA & RNA and circulating tumor DNA. In this way, we try to identify characteristics of the tumor, like the shape, structure, and genetic profile. We perform research in general clinical and specialized laboratories. Moreover, it is noteworthy that we can perform routine Whole Genome Sequencing with comprehensive molecular reporting for all of our patients.
Hospital pharmacy
We have a specialized team of pharmacists making sure that all medication is available for patients. They are certified by the Health Care Inspectorate to develop tailored medication and prepare it for phase 1 and 2 clinical research. The quality assurance department makes sure that everything is properly set up. We have a pharmacokinetics laboratory that determines the concentration of medication in the blood, for instance, when performing phase 1 and 2 clinical research. Here, we also check the quality of developed treatments.
