Professor Emeritus, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Guest Professor, University of Cologne, Germany
What industry trends are catching your attention right now?
In ocular oncology, one needs to develop new approaches for preventing outgrowth of threatening choroidal nevi to stop them from becoming a melanoma. With regard to metastases of eye melanomas, the current therapies are not curative, but they may prolong life. Combining approaches may be the way to go or stimulating immune responses first and then adding immune checkpoint inhibitors. We worked with Bel-sar, a new type of treatment that uses light-stimulation to kill tumor cells, developing an immune response at the same time. It helped us to cure mice, and is now in a phase III clinical trial for suspicious nevi.
What is a little-known fact about you?
I won first prize in a golf tournament at the American Ophthalmological Society, playing with my twin sister.
