Videos

Cancer is a sneaky disease. For instance, cancer cells sometimes manage to disguise themselves, outrunning our immune system. Gils Roex (UAntwerpen - FWO) explains how equipping our white blood cells with a cleverly designed CAR could well help win the race against blood cancer. Want to know more? Fasten your seatbelts & watch the video 🏎

Why do cancer patients relapse despite receiving treatment? This is often due to dormant cancer cells. These cells lie dormant in the body and manage to escape treatment, for example, chemotherapy. Can substances from camel and llama blood provide a breakthrough?

Did you know that cancer cells are not so different from our healthy cells? This makes it difficult for T-cells, important immune cells in our body, to recognise and fight cancer cells. Cancer researcher Heleen Hanssens (VUB-FWO) wants to give T-cells a helping hand by equipping them with more sensitive receptors, or antennae, that are pre-programmed to unmask cancer cells. In the lab, she is looking for the perfect form for these CAR antennae, so that they become more stable and better at detecting cancer cells. 

Radiation can save the lives of people with head and neck cancer. Unfortunately, many patients develop swallowing disorders as a result of the treatment, which makes it impossible for them to eat solid food. Leen Van den Steen (UAntwerpen - UZA) wants to help them. How? With tongue strength training.

"Each person is unique. So why do we still treat every woman with ovarian cancer the same way?" Liselore Loverix (KU Leuven - FWO) examines patient by patient and looks for errors in the DNA of their tumour cells. In this way, before treatment starts, she identifies which patient would benefit from a new, targeted therapy based on cancer drugs.

As if developing a cancer drug is not difficult enough, you still have to successfully get that medicine to the tumor. Tim Bomberna (Ghent University) explains how computer simulations show us the way.

With the current corona pandemic, viruses are seen as more dangerous than ever. But did you know that some viruses can help us fight cancer? Jolien De Munck is studying the potential of these so-called 'oncolytic viruses'.

Chemotherapy affects the brains of patients. It can lead to cognitive complaints, stress, and fatigue. Michelle Melis achieves promising results with mindfulness in patients with breast cancer. 

What is the link between a smoothie and the analysis of cancer tumours? Well, Sebastiaan Vanuytven explains it smooth(l)y in this video

Melanoma is a very common and lethal type of skin cancer. Melanoma cells have a strange, yet effective defence mechanism called autophagy: they can manage to survive by eating parts of themselves. Monica Vara Perez tries to figure out this self-cannibalism mechanism in order to help defeat melanoma.

Joeri Lambrecht (VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel) developed a simple blood test that allows for a faster, safer and cheaper detection of liver fibrosis.

Despite recent advances in breast cancer treatment, too many women still die once this cancer has spread throughout their body. That's why Matteo Rossi is looking to find weaknesses of breast cancer cells, in order to defeat them.