Jorun Holm

What is the title of your thesis?

"Clinical Integration of FDG-PET/CT in Lymph Node Staging of Cervical and Endometrial Cancers".

At which department and/or research unit did you complete your PhD?

Research Unit of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark.

Who was your principal supervisor?

Chief Physician and Clinical Professor Malene Grubbe Hildebrandt.

What question did you aim to answer with your thesis?

Can FDG-PET/CT scans contribute to an accurate, less invasive way to detect lymph node spread in uterine and cervical cancer?

What did you find?

I found that FDG-PET/CT can provide important information about the extent of the disease, but that it cannot stand alone. The combination of PET scanning and sentinel node biopsy provides the most reliable assessment of disease stage, and together the methods can accurately rule out lymph node spread.

The combined approach can therefore be used to target which patients actually need more extensive diagnostic surgery.

How did you do it?

I studied large groups of women with uterine or cervical cancer and compared their scan results with the findings from surgery and tissue examinations. In addition, I followed patients with different stages of disease through medical record data.

This allowed me to assess how accurately the scans identified disease spread and how they could be used to predict the course of the disease.

How can your research be applied (in the clinic, society, etc.)?

The research may help doctors make better decisions about which patients need major surgery and which can be treated with less invasive procedures. This could mean fewer side effects, a lower risk of chronic lymphoedema, and a gentler diagnostic process for many patients.

At the same time, the scans may provide important prognostic information and help guide the choice of treatment.