Dr. Mehtap Coskun actively engaged in several QART projects at EORTC Headquarters as the Emmanual Van Der Schueren fellow

Dr. Mehtap Coskun recently joined EORTC Headquarters as the Emmanual Van Der Schueren fellow. She earned her medical degree from the Mediterranean University Medicine Faculty in Antalya, Turkey in 2006 followed by an internship in Internal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Milan, Italy. She is presently a third year Radiation Oncology Research Assistant at the Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtarslan Oncology Hospital in Ankara, Turkey. By the numbers, the Ankara Oncology Hospital Radiation Oncology Department treats 4000 new patients per year and employs 28 Radiation Oncologists, 6 Radiotherapy Residents, 60 Radiotherapy Technicians, and 12 Medical Physicists.

Following her graduation, Mehtap studied 5-HT1 receptor mediated autonomic and behavioral responses in rats as a resident in the Ankara University Pharmacology Department, and for two months of her residency she worked at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), Switzerland on hippocampal avoidance approaches in patients with brain metastases and challenges of integrated boost strategies in the treatment of cervical carcinoma. She has presented the results of her research at several international and national scientific meetings.

Dr. Coskun began her fellowship at EORTC Headquarters in October 2011, where she is involved in a number of Quality Assurance in Radiation Therapy projects. These include:

• Dummy Run and Individual Case Review analysis of ongoing EORTC trial 22042-26042;
• ICR analysis of ongoing EORTC trial 26081-22086;
• Analysis of potential issues involving a non-EORTC digital Quality Assurance platform (ITC ATC US QA platform, with the experience of the EORTC 22042 and 22086 trials);
• Analysis of the correlation between QA assessment from dummy runs during center activation and the non-digital CRFs provided by the local investigators in EORTC trials 22043-30041 and 22033-26033;
• Implementation of target definitions for low-grade glioma in EORTC trial 22033-26033.

Mehtap adds, “I am forming a deep appreciation for the challenges and difficulties of developing and conducting multicenter international clinical trials. The EORTC plays a unique role in steering the future of the cancer treatment with its fifty years of experience, and I am delighted to have the chance to be both inspired by and part of this environment.”

Her fellowship is supported by the EORTC and by the Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker

( www.tegenkanker.be).

John Bean