Hanneke van Laarhoven, medical oncologist, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Biography

Hanneke van Laarhoven is professor of translational medical oncology at the University of Amsterdam and head of the Department of Medical Oncology of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Van Laarhoven is a staunch advocate of interdisciplinarity, as is evidenced by her two masters – in Medicine and Theology (both cum laude), as well as her two PhDs – in Medical Oncology (cum laude) and Religious Studies. In her quest for new, better treatment options for cancer patients, she seeks collaboration with both the sciences and the humanities.

Van Laarhoven’s translational research focusses on gastrointestinal cancer, specifically esophagogastric and pancreatic cancer. From the very beginning of her career, she has been intrigued by the possibility to elucidate tumor biology in vivo and non-invasively and developed a unique research line at the crossroads of medical oncology, radiology/nuclear medicine, and tumor biology. Her group investigates the interplay between tumor cells and stromal cells, with a specific focus on the development of treatment resistance and possible implications for novel therapies. To facilitate this research, she invested in the creation of a large biobank with tumor and blood samples as well as patient derived cell lines and organoids of the patients under study.

She is leading several multi-center investigator initiated clinical trials which include substantial correlative biomarker work and is figurehead of the Personalized Medicine route of the National Science Agenda (www.zonmw.nl/nl/over-zonmw/nationale-wetenschapsagenda/route-personalised-medicine/). Furthermore, she is one of the founding mothers of a prospective database for the collection of real-world clinical data and patient reported outcomes of patients with esophagogastric cancer (www.pocop.nl) and pancreatic cancer (www.pacap.nl). Currently, she is supervising more than 30 PhD students, post-docs and research assistants from different backgrounds, such as medicine, biology, artificial intelligence, international health, humanities, and psychology.

Summary of presentation

Background: Real-world data (RWD) is increasingly recognized as a valuable resource for enhancing patient care and outcomes. The Prospective Observational Cohort Study of Oesophageal-gastric cancer Patients (POCOP) project in the Netherlands exemplifies how RWD can be leveraged to improve care for patients with oesophagogastric cancer.

Objectives: This presentation aims to showcase the POCOP project’s methodology, key findings, and its impact on patient care in oesophagogastric cancer.

Methods: POCOP is a Dutch nationwide, population-based cohort study collecting clinical data and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from oesophagogastric cancer patients. Data is gathered through collaboration with academic and peripheral hospitals, covering over approximately two thirds of all Dutch hospitals. PROs are collected using validated questionnaires (among others QLQ-C30 and OG25) at diagnosis and at regular intervals thereafter. Clinical data and survival information are obtained from the Netherlands Cancer Registry.

Results: The POCOP project has successfully enrolled over 5,000 patients, demonstrating the feasibility of large-scale RWD collection in oncology. Key findings and applications include:

1. The prognostic value of baseline health-related quality of life for overall survival.
2. Identification of patterns in symptom burden and functional status throughout the disease trajectory.
3. Real-world effectiveness of various treatment modalities.
4. Development of the SOURCE model, a comprehensive prognostic model for personalized survival prediction in oesophagogastric cancer.
5. Use as a control cohort for single-arm studies (e.g., TRAP study), providing valuable comparisons for novel interventions.

Conclusion: The POCOP project illustrates the power of RWD in improving patient care and advancing clinical research. By systematically collecting and analyzing clinical data and PROs, it provides valuable insights that complement traditional clinical trials. This approach enables more personalized care, helps identify areas for quality improvement, supports evidence-based decision-making in clinical practice, and facilitates novel study designs. The POCOP model can be adapted to other cancer types and healthcare systems.