NederlandsWELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF THE
TCRU!
About the TCRU...
The Translational Cancer Research Unit (Antwerp, Belgium) is
dedicated to cancer research with an obvious impact on diagnosis
and treatment of cancer, and with an emphasis on breast cancer.
TCRU is a collaborative effort of the General Hospital
Sint-Augustinus and the University of Leuven.
Although the research topics of TCRU were initially closely related
to tumour angiogenesis, the focus has been broadened and now
includes the study of tumour-host interactions, including
angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, hypoxia, inflammation and
coagulation, and the study of minimal disease in blood and bone
marrow.
The two main strategies of the TCRU are:
1. to confront results of in vitro studies and of animal model
experiments with the clinical setting of cancer patients
(up-stream)
2. to translate clinical observations into explanatory models of
quantificable parameters in samples of cancer patients
(down-stream)
One of the fundaments of translational research is the development
of a tissue bank with optimal preservation of the morphology and of
the quality of DNA, RNA and proteins. To this purpose, standard
operation procedures for tissue, blood and bone marrow sampling and
storage (liquid nitrogen container), with integrated qualitiy
control, have been developed. Patient’s rights are respected by
written informed consent and by anonimisation of the samples.
The TCRU is cofounder of a global consortium (www.ibcconsortium.org) to foster international
collaborations to promote inflammatory breast cancer research.