Jan-Jaap Mellema

I joined the Van der Heijden-group as a PhD student in January 2023. My studies focus on the optimization of immunotherapeutic strategies in patients with locoregionally advanced bladder cancer, its effects on the tumour microenvironment and the practical application of biomarkers like circulating tumour DNA.

As such, I am involved in the Indi-Blade trial where we study the efficacy of induction combination immunotherapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancer with subsequent consolidative chemoradiotherapy, in an effort to provide a bladder-sparing treatment option.

As a concurrent staple of our research, we aim to study the effects of our treatment on the Quality of Life of patients.