On Tuesday 2 December 2025 S.M. Wooldrik, will defend the doctoral thesis titled: Innovations in the Treatment of Early Stage Breast Cancer
- Promotor
- Co-promotor
- Co-promotor
- Date
- Tuesday 2 Dec 2025, 15:30 - 17:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Space
- Professor Andries Querido room
- Building
- Education Center
- Location
- Erasmus MC
Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:
This thesis explores innovations in the surgical treatment of breast cancer, aiming to reduce treatment morbidity, improve quality of life, and optimize cosmetic outcomes, while maintaining effectiveness and safety. The first part focuses on shortening operative time and reducing the number of re-excisions in breast-conserving surgery. Chapter 2 describes the use of digital mammography during surgery, which reduced operative time by approximately 8 minutes but did not lead to fewer follow-up surgeries.
The second part addresses thermal ablation as an alternative for early-stage breast cancer. In chapter 3, three techniques (radiofrequency, microwave, and cryoablation) were compared. Cryoablation showed the best results, with 94% successful treatments and no complications. All techniques were suitable for outpatient treatment, with minimal differences in cosmetic outcomes. Chapter 4 shows that 90% of patients would prefer thermal ablation over surgery.
Chapter 5 outlines the protocol of a randomized study comparing percutaneous cryoablation with breast-conserving surgery in women aged 60 and older. The aim is to investigate whether cryoablation is non-inferior to breast-conserving surgery in terms of the number of breast cancer recurrences within 5 years. Chapter 6 examines the risk of under- or overestimating the indication for adjuvant therapy in small breast tumors when this decision is based on preoperative imaging and biopsy. The agreement between preoperative and postoperative tumor grade was 81%, and for ultrasound-determined tumor size, it was 75%. These discrepancies led to an adjusted indication for adjuvant therapy in only a small portion of patients, with underestimation occurring more frequently than overestimation. Chapter 7 provides insight into the occurrence of incidental findings on MRI in patients with early-stage breast cancer. Of the 50 patients who underwent MRI, 30% had additional abnormalities, 40% of which were malignant.
- More information
The public defence will start exactly at 15.30 hrs. The doors will be closed once the public defence starts, latecomers cannot access the hall. Given the solemn nature of the meeting, we advise not to bring children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.
A livestream link has been provided to candidate.
