Uulke van der Heide was appointed as professor of imaging technology in radiation oncology on August 1, 2015, at the department of radiation oncology at the Leiden UMC. He also holds a position as medical physicist and group leader at the department of radiation oncology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute

More information about Uulke van der Heide

Uulke van der Heide was appointed as professor of imaging technology in radiation oncology on August 1, 2015, at the department of radiation oncology at the Leiden UMC. He also holds a position as medical physicist and group leader at the department of radiation oncology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute

Imaging technology in radiation oncology

As delivery techniques in radiotherapy have reached unprecedented levels of versatility and accuracy, high-quality imaging to guide such treatments is essential to realize their full potential. To date, a CT scan forms the basis for radiotherapy treatment planning. However, because of its superior soft-tissue contrast, MRI is increasingly used to facilitate tumor delineation.

In our research we address the new questions that come with these developments: how accurate can the boundaries of a tumor be visualized to define the target for treatment? What imaging techniques are best suited to identify aggressive or radioresistent parts of the tumor for dose painting? And how can we use MRI during irradiation to improve the accuracy of dose delivery?

Academic career

Uulke van der Heide started his scientific carreer at the Utrecht University. He received his PhD on June 10, 1993 at the department of molecular biophysics. The title of this thesis is: : ‘A fluorescence polarization study of myosin in skeletal muscle’. After post-docs in Utrecht and the University of Pennsylvania, he made the move to medical physics and did a residency at the UMC Utrecht. In 2003 he was registered as medical physicist. He stayed in Utrecht and started a research group on the field of MRI and radiotherapy, with a focus on prostate cancer. He initiated the FLAME trial, a multicenter phase III study on focal dose escalation in prostate cancer. In 2011 he started as medical physicist and group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. His research continues there on the use of MRI in radiation oncology. He leads the MR-Linac project at the department.

At August 1, 2015, he was appointed professor at the department of radiation oncology of the Leiden UMC, in the field of imaging technology in radiation oncology. He held his inaugural address on June 10, 2016, with the title ‘what we see, what we don’t see, and what we do with that’.

Van der Heide is active as teacher in the ESTRO school and he is editor of ‘Radiotherapy and Oncology’.

Publications