About the group
Our many therapy studies with companion laboratory research for CRC patients with high-risk or metastatic disease have revealed that chemotherapy and radiotherapy can invoke tumor-directed immune activity.
These discoveries have led to recent clinical-translational trials combining traditional tumor-directed therapies with modern immunotherapy.
The laboratory investigations are aimed at advancing our understanding of how the immunotherapy cooperates and equally important, why the immune system does not show the desired anti-tumor activity in patients without.
Objectives
The CMOR research group’s scientific activities in clinical and academic oncology build on single- and multicenter investigator-originated clinical-translational studies on biologically adapted therapies for CRC patients with early-advanced or late-stage disease.
Over the past years, this research program has been expanded within a national cooperative trial group established by professor Ree.
The long-term aims of the research program include further strengthening of the comprehensive national trial activities and the translational research within oncology and cancer biology sciences conducted by the CMOR group fellows of medical scholars, molecular biologists, and imaging physicists.
Professor Ree aims to build scientific activities that accommodate needs observed in a large patient group, also with transfer value to other tumor entities that can be edited into susceptibility to immune therapy, towards refining precision immuno-oncology practice.
Projects
Ongoing projects
- From 2018: Circulating and Functional MR Imaging-Based Markers of Anti-Tumor Immunity in Colorectal Cancer.
- From 2018: The Randomized METIMMOX Trial.
- From 2019: Adverse Inflammation Versus Antitumor Immunity in Advanced Colorectal Cancer – Mastered by the Mitochondrial Metabolism.
- From 2022: The METIMMOX-2 Trial.
- From 2023: Functional Precision Medicine for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.
Accomplished PhD projects
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2021, Hanna Abrahamsson: Vitamin D Status and Immune Responsiveness in High-Risk and Advanced Colorectal Cancer.
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2019, Kine M. Bakke: Assessing Cancer Aggressiveness by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
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2019, Tonje Bjørnetrø: Extracellular Vesicles in Colorectal Cancer – Mediators of Tumor Aggressiveness.
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2017, Sebastian Meltzer: Circulating Markers of Immunogenicity and Metastasis in Combined-Modality Treatment of Rectal Cancer.
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2015, Helga Helseth Hektoen: Translational Studies of Microenvironmental Factors in Rectal Cancer with Emphasis on Tumor Hypoxia.
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2015, Knut Håkon Hole: Magnetic Resonance Guidance for the Multidisciplinary Management of Pelvic Malignancies – Clinical Potential and Technical Limitations.
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2014, Marie Grøn Sælen: Rectal Cancer – Functional Molecular Profiling and Targeting of Tumor Hypoxia in Radiation Response and Metastasis.
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2012, Kathrine Røe: Treatment Response Evaluation in Experimental Prostate Cancer by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Molecular Profiling.
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2009, Sigurd Folkvord: Experimental Radiosensitization and Molecular Prediction of Chemoradiotherapy Response in Rectal Cancer.
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2009, Åse Bratland: Therapeutic Targeting of Molecular Mechanisms Involved in Tumor Progression and Metastasis.
Accomplished postdoctoral projects
- 2023, Kine M. Bakke: Creating Immunity to Eradicate Early Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer - Functional MR Imaging Biomarkers.
- 2020, Paula A. Bousquet: Hypoxic Tumor Targets in Advanced Radiotherapy and Prevention of Metastasis in Rectal Cancer.
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2019, Lise Lund-Berven: Efficacy and Tolerability to Targeted Combined-Modality Therapy – Biological Mechanisms in Colorectal Cancer.
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2017, Erta Kalanxhi: OxyART – Actionable Radiotherapy Targets in hypOxic Tumors.
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2015, Karianne Risberg: Tumor Hypoxia in Rectal Cancer – Improving Radiotherapy Outcome by Kinomic Profiling.
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2015, Kathrine Røe Redalen: Tumor Hypoxia in Rectal Cancer – Improving Radiotherapy Outcome by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.