Each year, the Cancer Center Amsterdam Foundation provides grants to accelerate promising early-stage projects that contribute to earlier cancer detection, improved diagnostics, and more effective treatments. In 2025, thanks to the generous support of donors, ten innovative cancer research initiatives at Cancer Center Amsterdam will receive funding, with a total budget of more than €2 million.

This annual program aims to stimulate innovative research across Amsterdam UMC. Eligible submissions span the full spectrum of cancer research, including translational, clinical, and quality-of-life studies. With these grants, the Foundation continues to strengthen the innovation pipeline within Cancer Center Amsterdam, empowering promising young researchers and accelerating breakthroughs that benefit patients now and in the future.

CCA congratulates the following ten initiatives that will receive funding this year:

Pre-clinical:

Nanopore-based profiling of tRNA Modifications for Biomarker Discovery in Multiple Myeloma

Chantal Scheepbouwer

Next-Gen CRISPR Therapies for HPV-Driven Head & Neck Cancers

Adriana Martinez-Silgado

Engineering T cell metabolic fitness through overexpression of transcriptional regulators

Nienke Goedhart

iCARgo: induced Cell-based Antigen-Redirected gene cargo delivery

Waleed Kholosy

MRDetect-DLBCL by ACT-EM. Development of a one-step multi-model ctDNA assay for Measurable Residual Disease (MRD) Detection in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) patients at end-of-treatment (EOT).

Dorith Claushuis

Clinical:

Lenalidomide to overcome immunotherapy resistance in advanced solid tumors: A Phase 1b–2 clinical trial

Roeland Lameris

Long-Term Functional and Quality-of-Life Outcomes After Rotationplasty Versus Limb-Salvage and Amputation

Floortje Verspoor

Towards efficient and accurate personalised selective internal radiotherapy planning in patients with advanced liver cancer

Bart de Vries

Proof-of-concept round:

Spatial transcriptomics to predict differentiated thyroid cancer recurrence

Anton Engelsman en Yongsoo Kim

Neoadjuvant chemo-pembrolizumab with priming radiotherapy in patients with PD-L1 negative resectable stages II-III NSCLC

Idris Bahce en Famke Schneiders