Cancer-associated fibroblasts maintain their ability to enhance HNSCC tumour-cell growth and migration after irradiation
Awarded poster at the 17th International Wolfsberg Meeting on Molecular Radiation Biology/Oncology
Hurdal, Norway I 21-23 June 2025
By Kris Raaijmakers, travel grant awardee
After I had submitted my abstract, I was invited to participate in the 17th Wolfsberg Meeting at Hurdalsjøen, Norway. As a PhD student, I am studying the effect of radiotherapy on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) that are derived from primary human head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). These CAFs are highly abundant in the tumour microenvironment of HNSCC. These cells do not die after radiotherapy, but seem to go into senescence while retaining pro-tumourigenic functions. As we hypothesise that CAFs negatively impact the efficacy of radiotherapy due to these results, we are currently trying to target CAFs after irradiation. To understand how these cells survive and how they might be targeted to enhance radiotherapy efficacy requires a deep dive into radiobiology, and this was exactly what was provided at the Wolfsberg Meeting.
A wide variety of topics concerning radiobiology (DNA damage and repair; intra- and intercellular signalling; microenvironment; novel therapies and biomarkers) was represented at the meeting, and virtually all the presentations were relevant to my research, so I was able to learn more about my topic. In addition, the organisation of the presentations into four topics challenged me to look at my research and research from others from a new point of view. The discussions after each presentation were very fruitful; there was often plenty of time for questions, and there was a high level of engagement in these discussions.
What really stood out for me were the low-level interactions at the meeting. Every participant was very approachable, for example, if you had questions you had not been able to ask during the regular session. This was especially the case during the poster sessions. The extensive time that was reserved for these sessions, as well as the fact that only a limited number of posters was presented during each session, meant that the sessions were suitable for glancing at posters, discussing results in-depth, and engaging in interesting talks with other researchers present. Doing this, I was able to put my own results into perspective and to compare them with the results of others, which led to plenty of new ideas for further experiments and future collaborations.
I would like to thank the organising committee and all presenters and other participants in the meeting. The Wolfsberg Meeting is relatively short. However, it is smoothly organised and filled with engaging talks and very nice sportive and social events, which made it more than worth it to travel from the Netherlands to the beautiful location in Norway.
Kris Raaijmakers
Radiotherapy & OncoImmunology Laboratory, Department of Radiotherapy, Radboud University Medical Centre, The Netherlands
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kris-raaijmakers-1165aa228