PI: Carolien Schröder, MD PhD

Position: medical oncologist
Contact: c.p.schroder umcg.nl
Publications: Pubmed

Carolien Schröder (1969) is a medical oncologist, with a focus on breast cancer, at the department of Medical Oncology of the UMCG. She conducts large scale multicenter clinical breast cancer trials within the Netherlands, and has her own preclinical research line regarding the breast cancer microenvironment. She has procured funding for her research efforts from several sources including the Dutch Cancer Society. Her research as PI is embedded in the Cancer Research Center Groningen, the Netherlands.

As an MD student, she worked on cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cell lines, in the lab of dr. Thomas Hamilton, Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Philadelphia (U.S.A., 1994). After obtaining her MD degree with honors in 1996, she started her PhD work on minimal residual disease in breast cancer, supported by a Dutch Cancer Society grant. This led to her thesis ‘New ways to optimize breast cancer treatment’ (2001), with supervisors prof dr. Elisabeth de Vries and prof. dr. L.F.M.H. de Lei at the University of Groningen. After her residency Internal Medicine (2006) and fellowship Medical Oncology (2008), she was appointed staff membership at the department of Medical Oncology of the UMCG in 2008.

Schröder’s research focus is to explore novel rational treatment options to enhance therapeutic efficacy and personalized medicine, in interdisciplinary, translational research. This has lead to breast cancer research regarding preclinical and clinical intervention strategies directed at the breast cancer microenvironment and metastases, early clinical trials with novel anticancer agents, as well as large scale registration- and translational trials for rare subgroups including male- and inflammatory breast cancer. It has also lead to preclinical and clinical molecular imaging studies, with regard to visualization of tumor specific targets including cancer drug targets. In 2010 she received Clinical Research Award from the Dutch Cancer Society for her grant application: Molecular imaging to guide targeting the breast cancer microenvironment.

She is member of several institutional and (inter)national boards including the Dutch Male Breast Cancer Consortium (chair), the scientific advisory board of Dutch Pink Ribbon Foundation, and the Medical Ethical Committee of the UMCG. She is involved in national breast cancer guideline development. She chairs the organisation of the y early Groningen Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Symposium, and is member of the organizing committee of the yearly Dutch/Belgian Oncology Conference.

She is currently supervising 10 PhD projects and has published over 50 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. She is involved in national and international collaboration networks, including Institute Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, U.S.A. She is member of international research consortia regarding male breast cancer and inflammatory breast cancer.

Carolien Schröder is an all round academic medical oncologist, board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She p articipates in all aspects of clinical care in the department of Medical Oncology: outpatients, clinic, and consultations. She participates in training of MD students, internal medicine residents and medical oncology fellows. She holds a university teaching qualification from the University of Groningen. As an acknowledged breast oncologist, she has a particular interest in reflecting and explaining oncology developments for various audiences including professionals, patients and lay people.

Selected Publications

• van Kruchten M, de Vries EGE, Brown M, de Vries EFJ, Glaudemans AWJM, Dierckx RAJO, Schröder CP, Hospers GAP. PET imaging of oestrogen receptors in breast cancer patients. Lancet Oncol. 2013; 14: e465-e475.

• Gaykema SBM, Brouwers AH, Lub-de Hooge MN, Pleijhuis RG, Timmer-Bosscha H, Pot L, van Dam GM, van der Meulen SB, de Jong JR, Bart J, de Vries J, Jansen L, de Vries EGE, Schröder CP. ⁸⁹Zr-bevacizumab PET imaging in primary breast cancer. J Nucl Med 2013, 54: 1014-1018. (Editors’ Choice Award for one of the top three clinical investigation manuscripts published in the J Nucl Med 2013).

• Arjaans M, Oude Munnink TH, Oosting SF, Terwisscha van Scheltinga AGT, Gietema JA, Garbacik ET, Timmer-Bosscha H, Lub- de Hooge MN, Schröder CP, de Vries EGE. Bevacizumab-induced vessel normalization hampers tumor uptake of antibodies. Cancer Res. 2013, 73: 3347-3355.

• van Kruchten M, de Vries EG, Glaudemans AW, van Lanschot MC, van Faassen M, Kema IP, Brown M, Schröder CP, de Vries EF, Hospers GA. Measuring residual estrogen receptor availability during fulvestrant therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Discov. 2015; 5: 72-81.

• Lamberts LE, Williams SE, Terwisscha van Scheltinga AGT, Lub-de Hooge MN, Schröder CP, Gietema JA, Brouwers AH, de Vries EGE. Antibody PET imaging in anticancer drug development. J Clin Oncol. 2015; 33: 1491-1504.