Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is preferably treated by surgery. Its complete removal is essential for locoregional control and disease-free survival. Inadequate resection margins require adjuvant therapy such as re-resection or (chemo)radiation, which causes extra morbidity. Unfortunately, resection margins in OSCC are often inadequate and are the main indication to apply adjuvant treatment.

Since 7T MRI has the potential to visualize fine details, we aim to reduce the number of adjuvant radiation treatments by using ex vivo 7T MRI of the resection specimen of OSCC to indicate areas with close or positive resection margins for immediate re-resection. The ultimate aim is to reduce morbidity due to less adjuvant radiotherapy treatment and eventually improve oral function and the patient's quality of life by adequate tumor resection.

You will collect the specimen at the operating room and optimize the 7T MRI protocol and the histopathology procedures to spatially relate the imaging with the histopathology, which will be tested in a prospective cohort. Thereafter, you will participate in a clinical study to investigate if ex-vivo 7T MRI with immediate re-resection in case of suspected close / positive margins leads to better margin control, reduces postoperative radiation treatment and morbidity and improves oral function and the quality of life of our patients.

• You have obtained a Master's degree in Technical Medicine, Clinical Technology, Biomedical Technology/Engineering, Medical imaging, Applied Physics or a related discipline.
• You have the ability to work comfortably in an interdisciplinary medical research environment.
• Preferably you have experience with MR imaging
• You have affinity with medical image processing
• Proficiency in English in both speech and writing.
  The position is open immediately and we offer the following:
• A full-time position (36 hours per week) in a very stimulating and interactive research environment.
• This will be a temporary appointment for a maximum of 4 years.
• Your salary will be based on the scale for PhD students.

We would like to receive your application before Octobre 3rd 2022 including:

• a cover letter (maximum 1 page)
• a curriculum vitae

The maximum salary for this position (32 - 36 hours) is € 3.336,00 gross per month based on full-time employment.

In addition, we offer an annual benefit of 8.3%, holiday allowance, travel expenses and career opportunities. The terms of employment are in accordance with the Cao University Medical Centers (UMC).

You will be working in the internationally renowned UMC Utrecht Center for Image Science, where you will be working in a multi-disciplinary team of head-and-neck surgeons, medical and imaging physicists, computer scientists, radiologists and pathologists.In the multidisciplinary head-and-neck research group, departments of head-and-neck surgical oncology, radiology, radiotherapy and pathology of the UMC Utrecht. This group currently consists of over 10 PhD-students and postdocs and 10 staff members.
The PhD program is hosted by the Imaging and Oncology Division of the UMC Utrecht with close to 200 researchers within the Graduate School Life Sciences. UMC Utrecht runs a strategic Program Cancer where Image Science & Image Guided Interventions is one of the research themes.