A. Bel PhD

foto

PhD A. Bel

Position
Other Academic Staff
Main activities
Education, Patient care, Research, Other
Specialisation
Image guided adaptive radiotherapy, radiation treatment planning
Focus of research
  1. Research on image guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART) is combined with advanced radiation treatment planning. Applications of these new treatment techniques are focussing on mobile tumours (e.g. pancreas, stomache, oesophagus and bladder). For the upper abdomen breathing control strategies are being explored to "freeze" the tumor and the organs in a fixed position.
  2. Main research topics for brachytherapy include: clinical implementation of novel AI-driven dose optimization methods. This is being combined with a novel research line to save the bowlel by quantifying bowel motility during treatment with MRI.
  3. Hyperthermia shows some exciting new developments: improved treatment planning and new techniques enabling treatment of new indications. Combined optimization of treatment planning of hyperthermia and radiotherapy is explored; this line includes both fundamental biological research and implementation of mathematical biological models in software.
  4. Our group participates in the Holland  proton therapy center. During the coming years we will design image guided proton irradiation techniques for mobile tumors, a presently unexlored area. The potential benefit of either proton or photon therapy will be explored by means of mathematical biological models, a new application for the models as being developed in our other research lines.
Key publications
  • van der Horst Astrid, Wognum Silvia, Dávila Fajardo Raquel, de Jong Rianne, van Hooft Jeanin E., Fockens Paul, van Tienhoven Geertjan, Bel Arjan Interfractional position variation of pancreatic tumors quantified using intratumoral fiducial markers and daily cone beam computed tomography International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2013;87 (1):202-208 [PubMed]
  • Wognum S., Heethuis S. E., Rosario T., Hoogeman M. S., Bel A. Validation of deformable image registration algorithms on CT images of ex vivo porcine bladders with fiducial markers Medical physics 2014;41 (7):071916 [PubMed]
  • Lutkenhaus Lotte J., Visser Jorrit, de Jong Rianne, Hulshof Maarten C. C. M., Bel Arjan Evaluation of delivered dose for a clinical daily adaptive plan selection strategy for bladder cancer radiotherapy Radiotherapy and oncology 2015;116 (1):51-56 [PubMed]
  • Kok H. Petra, Crezee Johannes, Franken Nicolaas A. P., Stalpers Lukas J. A., Barendsen Gerrit W., Bel Arjan Quantifying the combined effect of radiation therapy and hyperthermia in terms of equivalent dose distributions International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2014;88 (3):739-745 [PubMed]
  • Dinkla Anna M., van der Laarse Rob, Kaljouw Emmie, Pieters Bradley R., Koedooder Kees, van Wieringen Niek, Bel Arjan A comparison of inverse optimization algorithms for HDR/PDR prostate brachytherapy treatment planning Brachytherapy 2015;14 (2):279-288 [PubMed]
All Publications
Curriculum Vitae

Personal details

Name: dr. Arjan (Adrianus) Bel
Gender: male
Date of birth: 23-1-1966
Place of birth: Leerdam, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch

Education

PHD degree
Institute: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Huis
Date: 1991-1995
PhD degree: February 1996, (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
Daily supervisors: dr. J. Lebesque, dr. M. van Herk, promotor: prof. dr. H. Bartelink.
PhD thesis: “Conformal radiotherapy: hitting a moving target.” Study on image guided improvement of positional accuracy of patients during radiotherapy.

Master degree

University: Utrecht
Date: 1984-1990
Study: Physics, specialization: computational physics/medical image processing
Master thesis: “Detection of edges and corners.” Study on automatic recognition of structures in MRI and CT images.

Other education
Hospital physicist Belgium 2000 (until 2004).
Clinical physicist The Netherlands, 2006.
Various courses on management in health care (2005-2009).

 

Professional experience

Sept. 2004 – present: head radiotherapy physics, Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam.

  • General management of HR (~45 fte, including project workers).
  • Coordination and management of clinical physics tasks.
  • Involvement in financial management/investments at department level (annual budget ~17M).
  • Hands-on clinical work.

Research/education

  • Started a research group from scratch.
  • Involvement in strategic coordination of department’s research direction.
  • Supervision of >30 BS/MS students.
  • Co-supervisor for 7 PhD students (finalized) + 10 PhD students (ongoing)

1999 – 2004: physicist/software engineer, Nucletron B.V., Veenendaal, Netherlands.


Development of treatment planning system for external beam radiotherapy; link between international customers/ users (Radiotherapy departments) and industrial R&D.

995-1999: Clinical physicist.


UZ Brussels, dept. of radiotherapy, Brussels, Belgium .
Physics support of the clinic, introduction of new developments for imaging and treatment planning for clinical use.

1991-1995: PhD student at NKI/AvL, Amsterdam.
See: Education.

1990-1991: Software engineer
Assignment on various software projects via employment agency.
research (2004-present)

 

Memberships

  • European society for radiotherapy and oncology (ESTRO).
  • Paediatric Radiation Oncology Society (PROS).
  • Nederlands vereniging voor klinische fysica (NVKF).
  • Nederlandse vereniging voor radiotherapie en oncologie (NVRO).

Awards and prize-winning grants


Senior author of award winning studies:
1. ESTRO-Jack Fowler award Barcelona "On-line dose calculation on cone beam CT for lung tumors", DC van Rooijen, G. Stippel, N. van Wieringen, A. Bel, 2010
2. ESTRO best poster award Barcelona "Prostate PDR brachytherapy: is it necessary to use an adaptive approach?" A Dinkla, P. Meijnen, B.R. Pieters, C. Koedooder, N. van Wieringen, R. van der Laarse, J.N. van der Grient, A. Bel, 2012
3. ESTRO best poster award Geneva "Cardiac volume reduction during chemo-radiotherapy of esophageal cancer patients" M. Kamphuis, LJ. Lutkenhaus, N. van Wieringen, MCCM Hulshof, A. Bel, 2013
4. ESTRO-Accuray Award, Vienna “Considerable intra-breath-hold motion and inter-breath-hold position variation of pancreatic tumors.” E. Lens, A van der Horst, E Versteijne, G van Tienhoven, A. Bel 2015
5. Best session presentation, Amsterdam Children Symposium “Radiotherapy in children, is there a difference with adults?” S.C. Huijskens, I.W.E.M van Dijk, M.A.J. de Jong, J. Visser, R. Dávila Fajardo, C.R.N. Rasch, T. Alderliesten, A. Bel, 2016
6. Session winning Award Amsterdam Kindersymposium “Respiratory-induced diaphragm motion during radiotherapy” S.C. Huijskens, I.W.E.M van Dijk, M.A.J. de Jong, J. Visser, R. Dávila Fajardo, C.R.N. Rasch, T. Alderliesten, A. Bel, 2017
7. Best presentation Award, First Quantivision symposium, Amsterdam “Dose warping uncertainties for the cumulative rectal wall dose from brachytherapy in cervical cancer” L. van Heerden, N. van Wieringen‎, C. Koedooder‎, B.R. Pieters‎, C.R.N. Rasch‎, A. Bel , 2017
8. 2nd prize best poster Award, First Quantivision symposium, Amsterdam “Comparison of respiratory-induced motion during radiotherapy between children and adults” S.C. Huijskens, I.W.E.M van Dijk, J. Visser, C.R.N. Rasch, T. Alderliesten, A. Bel 2017
9. ESTRO Junior Brachytherapy Travel Grant Vienna “ Dose warping uncertainties for the cumulative rectal wall dose from brachytherapy in cervical cancer” L. van Heerden, N. van Wieringen‎, C. Koedooder‎, B.R. Pieters‎, C.R.N. Rasch‎, A. Bel , 2017

 

Various other activities

  • Reviewer for leading papers in the field: International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics; Medical Physics; Physics in Medicine and Biology; Radiation Oncology; Radiotherapy and Oncology; British Journal of Radiology, Physica Medica
  • Reviewer for funding organizations (Cancer UK, KWF).
  • Reviewer and chairman for a number of international conferences (i.e. annual ESTRO-meeting, ICCR).
  • Member of STW-user committee MRI-Linac project, collaboration between UMC Utrecht, Philips and Elekta (2008-2014).
  • Chairman of NVKF committee for educational activities (“Kring radiotherapie”) (2017 - ; 2013-2017: member). Meetings 4-6x/year.
  • Co-organizer lectures institute Quantivision (2016 - ).
  • Scientific committee user meetings Brachytherapy Nucletron/Elekta (2010-2014).
  • Scientific committee user meeting Treatment Planning External Beam Elekta (2014).
  • Consultant treatment planning system External beam irradiation (2004-2010), Nucletron B.V. Veenendaal, the Netherlands.
Research programmes

PhD A. Bel (Innovative image guided radiotherapy)

Image guidance is essential for high-precision dose delivery in radiotherapy. It comprises the pre-treatment localization of the target with CT and/or MRI as well as safeguarding patient positioning during treatment. Especially the introduction of the linac mounted Cone Beam CT has opened a new realm of possibilities to enhance treatment precision, including:

  • Localization of mobile tumors and organs-at-risk.
  • Improvement of visualization of the relevant anatomy by application of markers in or around the tumor.
  • Bio-mechanical modeling of the internal anatomy.  
  • Strategies for geometrical and dosimetric corrections of the treatment, including adaptive radiotherapy ( ART).

Focus is on mobile gastrointestinal/abdominal tumors (pancreatic, bladder and esophagus).
Moreover, external beam radiotherapy is combined with other techniques:

  • Brachytherapy: the tumor is irradiated locally with a radioactive source
  • Hyperthermia: the effect of irradiation is enhanced by heating.

Research includes modeling and quantification of the synergistic effect of these combinations.

 

 

Faculty
PhD T. Alderliesten
PhD P.A.N. Bosman
PhD J. Crezee
PhD I.W.E.M. van Dijk

Postdocs
PhD P. Kok
PhD A. van der Horst

Others
PhD R. van der Laarse

Prof. PhD C.R.N. Rasch (Image guided and physics application in the clinic)

Current research funding
  • Europese Unie
  • Hogeschool INHOLLAND
  • KWF Kankerbestrijding
  • NWO
  • Toegepaste en Technische Wetenschappen (TTW)
  • Universiteit Twente