INTERVIEW Getting the


Professor René Medema, Director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, believes that improving our knowledge and understanding of cancer through fundamental research is as important as applying that knowledge in trials and tests for new drugs and treatments. Here he tells William Davis how getting that balance right is delivering results for his institute


group focused on the idea that by getting an improved understanding of


the cellular response to cancer


drugs, we will be able to better predict particular drug responses to particular cancers. It sounds like a simple idea and, when hearing Medema talk of this work, he makes it sound eminently sensible, too. Many anti- cancer drugs kill cells by targeting the cell cycle – by damaging the DNA or by preventing assembly of the


balance right W


hen Professor René Medema became Director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in 2012, he brought with him a well-established research


division and in particular checkpoints that control cell strategies and treatments. It is approach that relies on fundamental


mitotic spindle, which is required for cell division, for example. So by studying the mechanisms involved in cell


those molecular cycle progression,


Medema is looking to understand how different drugs affect this process and this will lead to more effective anti-cancer


an research, of


course, but one that is increasingly applied at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. “We feel it is important to understand cancer,” says Medema when explaining the basic philosphy guiding


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