prof.dr. L.W.M.M. Terstappen (Leon)

Brief summary of research over last five years

Leon Terstappen is a medical doctor with a PhD in biophysics who is intrigued by finding technology solutions to medical problems. He has become an international recognized expert in cytometry and pioneered the detection of rare cells. Early in his career he explored the differentiation pathways of hematopoietic cell lineages and identified the phenotype of the hematopoietic stem cell. With the observation of cancer cells in cell suspensions used for stem cell transplantation of breast cancer patients, he changed his focus and started his pioneering work in Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC). He was in charge of the development of the CellSearch system, the only FDA cleared platform to enumerate CTC in blood. Using this technology, it was demonstrated that the presence of CTC in patients with no known metastatic disease are at high risk for disease recurrence. In patients with metastatic disease the CTC load is strongly associated with poor outcome and the strongest predictor of therapy response. His research efforts at the University of Twente focused on further technology development to identify, isolate and characterize CTC in all patients with disseminated cancer and demonstration of the clinical utility of the developed tools through national and international collaborations with clinical research centers. Our[EMA(1] observation of small objects being present in blood of cancer patients and their load being strongly associated with clinical outcome lead to the[EMA(2] interest in Extracellular Vesicles (EV). We[EMA(3] baptized these objects as tumor derived EV (tdEV) and observed a large yet unexplained heterogeneity in appearance. Recently technology has been invented and developed to determine the secretome of individual CTC and assess their response to therapy. This is currently being explored in hormone sensitive metastatic prostate cancer through an NWO/KWF project in collaboration with Erasmus. The ultimate objective is to guide individual treatment of cancer patients throughout the course of their disease and along the way validate the “liquid biopsies” technologies to truly enable personalized cancer care.

In 2007, Terstappen started the department of Medical Cell BioPhysics at The University of Twente. From 1994 to 2007, he was Chief Scientific Officer at Immunicon Corporation, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA. From 1987 to 1994, he held various research positions in the research department of Becton Dickinson Immunocytometry systems in Mountain View CA, USA. He obtained his PhD from the University of Twente and his medical degree from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Medicine & Life Sciences

# Breast Neoplasms
# Circulating Neoplastic Cells
# Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule
# Extracellular Vesicles
# Neoplasms
# Prostatic Neoplasms
# Surface Plasmon Resonance

Engineering & Materials Science

# Antibodies

Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW), Medical Cell Biophysics (MCBP)

Lu, T. , Oomens, L. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M. , & Prakash, J. (2023). In Vivo Detection of Circulating Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Breast Tumor Mouse Xenograft: Impact of Tumor Stroma and Chemotherapy. Cancers, 15(4), [1127]. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15041127

Nanou, A., Miao, J. , Coumans, F. A. W., Dolce, E. M., Darga, E., Barlow, W., Smerage, J. B., Paoletti, C., Godwin, A. K., Pusztai, L., Sharma, P., Thompson, A., Hortobagyi, G. N. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., & Hayes, D. F. (2023). Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Complementary Prognostic Factors to Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer. JCO Precision Oncology, 7, [e2200372]. https://doi.org/10.1200/PO.22.00372

Dathathri, E., Isebia, K. T. , Abali, F., Lolkema, M. P., Martens, J. W. M. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M. , & Bansal, R. (2022). Liquid Biopsy Based Circulating Biomarkers in Metastatic Prostate Cancer. Frontiers in oncology, 12, [863472]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.863472

Stevens, M. , Nanou, A. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Driemel, C., Stoecklein, N. H. , & Coumans, F. A. W. (2022). StarDist Image Segmentation Improves Circulating Tumor Cell Detection. Cancers, 14(12), [2916]. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14122916

Isebia, K. T. , Dathathri, E., Verschoor, N. , Nanou, A., Jong, A. C. D. , Coumans, F. A. W. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Kraan, J., Martens, J. W. M. , Bansal, R., & Lolkema, M. P. (2022). Characterizing Circulating Tumor Cells and Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Metastatic Castration-Naive and Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Patients. Cancers, 14(18), [4404]. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14184404

Bollen, Y. (2022). Karyotype diversification in colorectal cancer. [PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT, University of Twente]. University of Twente. https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036553506

Bollen, Y., Hageman, J. H., van Leenen, P., Derks, L. L. M., Ponsioen, B., Buissant des Amorie, J. R., Verlaan-Klink, I., van den Bos, M. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., van Boxtel, R., & Snippert, H. J. G. (2022). Efficient and error-free fluorescent gene tagging in human organoids without double-strand DNA cleavage. PLoS Biology, 20(1), 1-16. [e3001527]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001527

Tamminga, M. , Andree, K. C., van den Bos, H., Hiltermann, T. J. N., Mentink, A., Spierings, D. C. J., Lansdorp, P., Timens, W., Schuuring, E. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., & Groen, H. J. M. (2022). Leukapheresis increases circulating tumour cell yield in non-small cell lung cancer, counts related to tumour response and survival. British journal of cancer, 126, 409-418. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01634-0

Schasfoort, R. B. M., van Weperen, J., van Amsterdam, M., Parisot, J. , Hendriks, J. , Koerselman, M. , Karperien, M., Mentink - Leusink, A., Bennink, M., Krabbe, H. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., & Mulder, A. H. L. (2021). High throughput surface plasmon resonance imaging method for clinical detection of presence and strength of binding of IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 during CoViD-19 infection. MethodsX, 8, [101432]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2021.101432

CANCER-ID Consortium (2021). Proficiency Testing to Assess Technical Performance for CTC-Processing and Detection Methods in CANCER-ID. Clinical chemistry, 67(4), 631-641. https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvaa322

Foy, V., Lindsay, C. R., Carmel, A., Fernandez-Gutierrez, F., Krebs, M. G., Priest, L., Carter, M., Groen, H. J. M., Hiltermann, T. J., de Luca, A., Farace, F., Besse, B. , Terstappen, L., Rossi, E., Morabito, A., Perrone, F., Renehan, A., Faivre-Finn, C., Normanno, N., ... Michiels, S. (2021). EPAC-lung: European pooled analysis of the prognostic value of circulating tumour cells in small cell lung cancer. Translational Lung Cancer Research, 10(4), 1653-1665. https://doi.org/10.21037/tlcr-20-1061

International SU2C PCF Prostate Cancer Dream Team (2021). CD38 in Advanced Prostate Cancers. European urology, 79(6), 736-746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2021.01.017

Beekman, P. , Enciso-Martinez, A., Pujari, S. P. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Zuilhof, H. T. , Le Gac, S. , & Otto, C. (2021). Organosilicon uptake by biological membranes. Communications Biology, 4(1), [704]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02155-5

Beekman, P. , Enciso-Martinez, A., Pujari, S. P. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Zuilhof, H. , Le Gac, S. , & Otto, C. (2021). Author Correction: Organosilicon uptake by biological membranes. Communications Biology, 4(1), [812]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02338-0, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02338-0

Beekman, P. , Enciso-Martinez, A., Pujari, S. P. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Zuilhof, H. , Le Gac, S. , & Otto, C. (2021). Publisher Correction: Organosilicon uptake by biological membranes. Communications Biology, 4(1), [813]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02344-2, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02344-2

Bollen, Y., Stelloo, E., van Leenen, P., van den Bos, M., Ponsioen, B., Lu, B., van Roosmalen, M. J., Bolhaqueiro, A. C. F., Kimberley, C., Mossner, M., Cross, W. C. H., Besselink, N. J. M., van der Roest, B., Boymans, S., Oost, K. C., de Vries, S. G., Rehmann, H., Cuppen, E., Lens, S. M. A., ... Snippert, H. J. G. (2021). Reconstructing single-cell karyotype alterations in colorectal cancer identifies punctuated and gradual diversification patterns. Nature genetics, 53(8), 1187-1195. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00891-2

Weber, S., van der Leest, P., Donker, H. C., Schlange, T., Timens, W., Tamminga, M., Hasenleithner, S. O., Graf, R., Moser, T., Spiegl, B., Yaspo, M. L. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Sidorenkov, G., Hiltermann, T. J., Speicher, M. R., Schuuring, E., Heitzer, E., & Groen, H. J. M. (2021). Dynamic changes of circulating tumor DNA predict clinical outcome in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. JCO Precision Oncology, 5, 1540-1553. https://doi.org/10.1200/PO.21.00182

Abali, F. , Baghi, N., Mout, L. , Broekmaat, J. J. , Tibbe, A. G. J. , & Terstappen, L. W. M. M. (2021). Measurement of the drug sensitivity of single prostate cancer cells. Cancers, 13(23), [6083]. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13236083

Stevens, M. , Liu, P. , Niessink, T., Mentink, A. , Abelmann, L. , & Terstappen, L. (2021). Optimal halbach configuration for flow-through immunomagnetic ctc enrichment. Diagnostics, 11(6), [1020]. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11061020

Schasfoort, R. B. M., van Weperen, J., van Amsterdam, M., Parisot, J. , Hendriks, J. , Koerselman, M. , Karperien, M., Mentink, A. , Bennink, M., Krabbe, H. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., & Mulder, A. H. L. (2021). Presence and strength of binding of IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 during CoViD-19 infection. Biosensors & bioelectronics, 183, [113165]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113165

Mendelaar, P. A. J., Kraan, J., Van, M. , Zeune, L. L. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Oomen-de Hoop, E., Martens, J. W. M., & Sleijfer, S. (2021). Defining the dimensions of circulating tumor cells in a large series of breast, prostate, colon, and bladder cancer patients. Molecular oncology, 15(1), 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12802

Rikkert, L. G. , Coumans, F. A. W., Hau, C. M. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., & Nieuwland, R. (2021). Platelet removal by single-step centrifugation. Platelets, 32(4), 440-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2020.1779924

Steggink, L. C., Boer, H., Meijer, C., Lefrandt, J. D. , Terstappen, L. W. M. M., Fehrmann, R. S. N., & Gietema, J. A. (2021). Genome-wide association study of cardiovascular disease in testicular cancer patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. Pharmacogenomics Journal, 21(2), 152-164. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41397-020-00191-8

Nanou, A., Mol, L., Koopman, M., Punt, C. J. A. , & Terstappen, L. W. M. M. (2020). Circulating tumor cells, tumor- and endothelium- derived extracellular vesicles, but not circulating endothelial cells associate with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer. Cancer research, 80(16_Supplement), [6487]. https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.am2020-6487

Nanou, A. , Zeune, L. L., Bidard, F. C., Pierga, J-Y. , & Terstappen, L. W. M. M. (2020). HER2 expression on tumor-derived extracellular vesicles and circulating tumor cells in metastatic breast cancer. Cancer research, 80(16_Supplement), [5372]. https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.am2020-5372

See all research output of this employee

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.