Arlene L Oei (P. I.)


Arlene Leonie Oei received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Free University of Brussels and her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Radboud University Nijmegen. In 2017 Arlene obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam at the Faculty of Medicine with a thesis entitled: ‘Tumors can’t stand the heat. Boosting the effectiveness of hyperthermia in cervical carcinoma.’ After successfully defending her PhD, Arlene moved to Baltimore and worked at the Johns Hopkins University at the department of Radiation Oncology. Since 2019, Arlene is a group leader of the radiobiology and hyperthermia research at the department of Radiation Oncology, at the Amsterdam UMC | AMC. Furthermore, Arlene is currently a councillor at the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM); Executive board member and secretary of the board for Thermotherapy Netherlands (TTNL); Member of the board for the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO); a guest editor at Cancers; and a volunteer editor at Stichting Olijf.

Research interest

Our research group currently focusses on radiobiology, hyperthermia and ways to improve current anti-cancer regimes. This involves better understanding of biological responses after various treatments in 2D and 3D in vitro cultures, and in vivo treatments. Four PhD students and two technicians are focussing on the following projects: (1) The effects of multimodality treatments radiotherapy, hyperthermia, cisplatin and PARP1-inhibitors on DNA damage responses in cervical carcinoma. (2) The exploration of potential immune modifiers in cervical carcinoma. (3) The understanding of early and late radiation toxicity in prostate cancer patients. (4)The improvement of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in metastasized colorectal cancer models. 

Research output