Hans Langendijk

Presentation
Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), characterized by its anatomic complexity and proximity to numerous critical structures, poses significant challenges for radiation oncologists. While radiotherapy bremains the corberstone of treatment, recent advanves in radiation technologies have substantially improved local tumour control and reduced radiation-induced toxicity.

In this presentation, current evidence on the application of advanced radiation modalities, inclusing intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) and proton arc therapy (PAT) will be discussed. Comparative analyses on target conformity, organ-at-risk sparing, tumour controlm survival and toxicity profiles will be discussed.

The results from several studies show that new radiation technologies provide significant opportunities to broaden the therapeutic window in the treatment of NPC, offering more precise, personalized and effective therapy, integrated with other modalities.

Bio
Professor Hans Langendijk received his residence training in Radiation Oncology in the Radiotherapeutic Institute in Heerlen and Maastricht (currently MAASTRO), which he completed in 1997.
From 1997 to 2004, he worked at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the VU University Medical Center. During that period, he became specialised in head and neck radiation oncology.
Since October 2004, he is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology of the University Medical Center Groningen. His special interests are head and neck oncology, prediction, prevention and treatment of radiation-induced side effects and methodologies to develop and validate new radiation techniques, such as proton therapy.
Hans Langendijk is initiator and coordinator of numerous clinical (multicenter) trials. He is (co-) author of more than 500 papers and book chapters especially on head and neck oncology, radiation-induced side effects and proton therapy. He is co-chair of the PTCOG Head and Neck Cancer Subcommittee. In 2020, he has been elected as chair of the Netherlands Society for Radiation Oncology (NVRO).
He is the founder of the model-based approach, which is currently used in the Netherlands, as an evidence-based methodology to select patients for proton therapy.