PhD defence L. (Lisanne) Mout

The therapeutic landscape of metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) has been transformed in the past two decades. Until 2004 androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was the only effective treatment for patients with mPCa. Since then, taxane chemotherapeutics, androgen receptor signaling targeted inhibitors and combination strategies have been introduced. This has substantially improved the outlook of mPCa patients, as illustrated by a recent report by the Dutch Cancer registry (IKNL). The median overall survival after diagnosis of metastatic disease, increased from 26.5 to 37.2 months between 2004-2008 and 2014-2018, respectively.1 The landmark CHAARTED and STAMPEDE studies have paved the way for combination treatments in hormone sensitive PCa (HSPC) patients when they showed that adding docetaxel to ADT induces a strong survival benefit. These findings have been implemented into the daily clinical practice of mPCa, although an underlying mechanisms for greater efficacy of the combination treatment remains unresolved.

Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall or in the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.