PhD Defence Judith Leonore Gulikers

Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer, targeted therapies, therapeutic drug monitoring, drug interactions 

"Improving safe and effective use of targeted therapies in non-small cell lung cancer"

This thesis investigated ways to improve effective and safe use of targeted therapies in non-small cell lung cancer. Targeted therapies are drug that are administered in the form of pills and can targeted specific mutation in the DNA of the tumour. A relatively new database was investigated to establish its suitability for future lung cancer research. Additionally, a method was developed and validated to determine targeted therapy concentrations in the blood and a method was explored to increase the concentration of a specific targeted therapy in patients with low concentrations. This was done by the addition of an extra drug. Furthermore, it was found that high concentrations of a specific target therapy in the blood did not result in better outcomes in terms of effectivity in brain metastasis compared to low concentrations. Lastly, the research in this thesis has shown that there are relevant drug-drug interactions between targeted therapies and anti-coagulation therapies in the form of pills. Measuring the blood concentration of anti-coagulants and, if necessary, adjusting the treatment, is therefore important.  

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