Dr. Judith V.M.G. Bovée

Judith V.M.G. Bovée, MD, PhD

Dr. Judith V.M.G. Bovée Professor Judith V.M.G. Bovée is a clinician scientist at the Department of Pathology, LUMC, with a special focus on bone and soft tissue tumours. Her aim is to crosslink patient care (diagnostic pathology of bone and soft tissue tumours) with basic research (elucidating the molecular events underlying sarcoma development and progression) in order to establish improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment for patients with bone and soft tissue tumours.

She was born in The Netherlands in 1972, and started to train in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leiden, followed by studying Medicine. She obtained her Master’s degree in Medicine in 1995 and her Medical Degree in 1997. She subsequently performed her PhD studies on the molecular genetic characterization of cartilaginous tumours under supervision of Prof. Pancras Hogendoorn at the Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center and obtained her PhD degree in 2000 (cum laude), when she was already training to become a pathologist. After her pathology training, Dr. Bovée joined the faculty at the LUMC in 2003, where she has remained ever since, being promoted to Associate Professor in 2007 and to Full Professor in 2013.

Dr Bovée currently works as a consultant pathologist. Her clinical work is primarily focussed at bone and soft tissue tumours and molecular diagnostics of sarcomas, but also includes general pathology and the supervision and teaching of residents in pathology. In the Netherlands the diagnostics and care for bone sarcoma patients is centralized in four centres, and the Netherlands Committee for Bone Tumors is based in the LUMC. ~40% of all malignant bone tumors and ~20% of the soft tissue tumours in the Netherlands are diagnosed and treated in the LUMC. Dr Bovée provides reference pathology at a national and international, level and receives ~300 consultation cases for bone and soft tissue tumors per year. In recognition of her contributions to pathology and research in bone tumours she was asked to contribute to the 2002 as well as the 2013 WHO classification of tumours of soft tissue and bone.

Dr Bovée’s scientific research has focussed on the pathogenesis, morphology and molecular pathology of bone and soft tissue tumours, resulting in >100 original publications, and >15 book chapters. Her work was financially supported amongst others by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), as she was a VIDI and Aspasia laureate. She has delivered >30 invited lectures at international conferences. She was work package leader in the FP6 Network of Excellence EuroBoNeT, and is currently work package leader and executive committee member in the FP7 EuroSarc consortium, focussing on clinical and translational research on bone and soft tissue tumours. Moreover, she participates in the LSSI-initiated international consortium to study myxoid liposarcoma. This integrates her current and ongoing research into the tumour genetics of bone and soft tissue tumours into a global platform.

Dr. Bovee has been a receipient of two of the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative's grants for the study of chondrosarcoma and liposarcoma. She writes the following about her experience with the Initiative: "For me personally, the Initiative has been of tremendous importance in setting up collaborations and joining forces with sarcoma expert teams across the ocean, providing me with a global platform for my sarcoma research. The collaboration with MD Anderson as well as the University of British Columbia in the myxoid liposarcoma consortium has been great...I think the collaboration will lead to many more good things even beyond the grant period."