Professor of Surgery, in particular surgical oncology. Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrine and Oncology Surgery (GEO) Research funding from KWF, ZonMw, Innovation Fund, the Bontius Foundation. Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Royal Netherlands Army

More information about Gerrit-Jan Liefers

Professor of Surgery, in particular surgical oncology.
Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrine and Oncology Surgery (GEO)

Research funding from KWF, ZonMw, Innovation Fund, the Bontius Foundation.

Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Royal Netherlands Army.

Surgical Oncology

The chair of surgical oncology is broad. From a surgical perspective, I want to contribute to the oncological care of tomorrow. Clinical research in a relevant (i.e. older) population is necessary to continue to make progress. Sometimes progress can be made by no longer doing parts of the treatment. This so-called 'de-escalation' prevents overtreatment but requires a more individual assessment of the prognosis and response to therapy. In the coming years, my research will focus on personalizing cancer treatments for older patients. In essence, oncological treatment is multidisciplinary and I look forward to conducting this research with colleagues from medical oncology, radiotherapy, pathology, and many others at the LUMC and beyond.

Academic carreer

After obtaining my doctoral degree, I did my PhD research at the departments of Surgery and Molecular Pathology of the LUMC (PhD on January 4, 2004 with the thesis ‘molecular stratification of colorectal cancer’). In 2003, I received a research grant to do research at the Institute of Molecular Science, University of Tokyo (IMSUT).

After a clinical fellowship from the KWF, I started as a staff member of Surgery at the LUMC in 2006. A KWF program grant in 2008 was the start of the current research line ‘geriatric oncology’.