Tarik Baetens

Since 2018, I have been working as an interventional radiologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). After my training as a radiologist at the Maastricht University Medical Center, I did a fellowship in interventional radiology at the Leiden University Medical Center and the Haga Hospital to further develop my skills in vascular and oncological procedures.

As an interventional radiologist , I perform minimally invasive procedures under the guidance of imaging (X-rays, ultrasound or CT). Examples of this are the burning away (Radiofrequent/Microwave ablations) or freezing (Cryoablations) of tumors in the lungs, liver, kidneys, skeleton or elsewhere in the body through a small incision in the skin. In addition, I perform treatments through the blood vessels, including the deliberate closure of arteries (embolizations) with the aim of slowing down the growth of tumors or stopping bleeding. In addition to occlusion, we can also use the blood vessels to deliver local chemotherapy (TACE) or to administer internal radiotherapy (Yttrium-90 / SIRT) into the liver.

In addition to these treatments, we do diagnostics and treatment of leakage of lymph and chylus. Examples include leakage in the chest (chylothorax), in the urine (Chyluria), leakage of lymph in the genitalia and post-operative lymph leakage with accumulation elsewhere in the body (lymphocele).

To gain additional expertise in this area, I spent two weeks shadowing interventional radiologist Prof. M. Itkin at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine) in the United States. Prof. Itkin is an authority in the field of diagnostics, research and treatment of lymphatic abnormalities and directs the Penn Center of Lymphatic Disorders, a high-volume center that treats several patients from across the U.S. every week.