- Introduction
The NKI-AVL (Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek hospital) is a multidisciplinary cooperation between scientists at the NKI-AVL and medical specialists at the AVL. The hospital comprises 180 beds, a large radiotherapy department and outpatient clinics. Facilities for patient research include a large patient database, clinical data management and active research groups in epidemiology and psychosocial oncology. The laboratory covers all major areas of cancer research, with special emphasis on mouse tumor models, mouse (reverse) genetics, cell biology, immunology and translational research requiring close collaboration between clinical and basic scientists. Because of the specialized treatments in the hospital, it has acquired (as the only non-university associated hospital) an academic status in The Netherlands.
- Education
Theoretical and practical training in research are regular activities in the institute. Several staff members have joint appointments as professors at Dutch universities and contribute to the regular curriculum at these universities. In addition, many staff members teach courses for undergraduate and graduate students, either within the institute or universities. The NKI-AVL has a formal affiliation with the Science Faculty of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The institute also participates in the Graduate School ‘Onderzoeksschool Oncologie Amsterdam’ (OOA), together with the UvA and the Free University (VU).
- Research Facilities
The research divisions within the NKI-AVL are supported by a number of indispensable research service facilities. Each group comprises a group of experts who provide information, instructions and service assistance, and houses state of the art equipment. Among these facilities are: Digital Microscopy, which provides five imaging systems: three Leica confocal laser scanning microscopes and two microscope setups with cooled CCD-cameras. These microscopes allow study of processes in living cells, comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The micro-array facility is a relatively new facility that has proven its use in clinical studies already. The facility has produced 18K human and 15K mouse cDNA micro-arrays and provides support both in the technical assistance as in the data analysis and storage. Finally, the institute harbors among others, a state-of-the-art DNA sequencing facility, flow cytometry department, and transgenic mouse service.
- History
The NKI-AVL was founded in the beginning of the 20th century in Amsterdam as the Netherlands Cancer Institute by a group of scientists, medical doctors and financiers lead by Prof. Dr. Jacob Rotgans. Rotgans was a medical doctor who was very interested in cancer. Together with Prof. Willem M. de Vries and printer J.H. de Bussy they initiated the founding of the NKI-AVL in a time when Röntgen discovered the X-rays, and other cancer specialized organizations like the German 'Deutsche Komitee zur Erforschung und Bekämpfung der Krebstkrankheit' and the American Cancer Research Society were founded as well.
In 1915 NKI-AVL opened its doors in a building that used to be a bank, situated in the centre of Amsterdam on the Keizersgracht 780. The building got the name 'Antoni van Leeuwenhoekhuis' after the inventor of the microscope and ‘father of the microbiology’.- Hot start
The possibility to do X-ray treatments on patients was one of the main reasons to found a new hospital. In the first year (1915) 173 patients were treated and numbers increased to 294 in 1916, and 477 in 1920. The hospital needed expansion and soon got a second X-ray machine in 1916, located in a dependance at the Prinsengracht 1011. Besides the possibility to perform X-ray therapy, the presence of its own research laboratory was the second extra of the NKI-AVL. In the instructions for the head of the laboratory was a mark that obliged him to cooperate as much as possible with the other scientific staff members of the AVL-hospital. This direct cooperation between clinicians and researchers was remarkably for that time, and initialized the central theme throughout the history of the NKI-AVL. - Moving on
But because of the ever-growing amount of successive operations and publications from the NKI-AVL, the first building soon became too small and already in 1920 the search for a new location began. This search lasted till 1924, when the city of Amsterdam found a suitable location in the Sarphatistraat, a former Military Hospital and clothing storehouse (see picture). Of course the buildings had to be restyled to suit the necessities of both the clinicians and the researchers, until ultimately in 1929 the Queen-mom, Emma, opened the second NKI-AVL. The new housing was a great stimulus for both hospital AND the research, and from the early 1930s to the late 1960s the NKI-AVL grew with researchers as N. Waterman, W.F. Wassink, R. Korteweg and P. Emmlot to fame. But again the buildings became too small. This was not only because of more patients, but also of expansion of the research with a mouse house, a histology department, the library and new technologies using ultra-high voltage radiation machinery like ‘the millionaire’ (see sidebar).
And so a new search began which lead to the third NKI-AVL to be build in close proximity to a second and bigger hospital near the Slotervaart hospital in the west of Amsterdam. A completely new complex of buildings arose with separate, but connected, buildings for the research, the animal house, and the hospital (including radiation bunkers). In 1973 the AVL was transferred to the new site that was officially opened by Queen Juliana on October 30th of the same year. The building for the research was build separately and was not opened until May 7th 1979.
- Latest Developments
Since the NKI-AVL moved to its current location it has not stopped growing. MRI and the need for a policlinic urged the NKI-AVL to expand further in small steps, until in 1999 the NKI-AVL got green light from the ministry of Health to build a new hospital and to renovate the ‘old’ hospital and research buildings. The first part of this operation, building a new hospital was ready and opened in June 2004 by our present Queen Beatrix. This major operation has made the AVL ready for the next decennia, with high-tech Cone Beam CT-scan, modern equipment and expansion of the specialization possibilities for employees working in the clinic. The second part, the remodeling of the old hospital and the research buildings is scheduled to be finished in 2005 or 2006, and will deal with the capacity problems of the research and should give the scientists all opportunities they need.- NKI-AVL homepage >>
- Reference
- Most information on this page was adapted from 'De Som van Zorg en Onderzoek - Negentig jaar Nederlands Kanker Instituut Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis' by Bas C. van Lier. ISBN: 90-75575-06-8
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The man after whom the hospital was named was an unlikely scientist because he came from a family of tradesmen and had no fortune, higher education and knowledge of foreign languages. Despite his strange background, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek with his self-made microscopes, succeeded in making some of the most important discoveries in the history of biology. It was he who discovered bacteria, free-living and parasitic microscopic protists, sperm cells, blood cells, microscopic nematodes and rotifers, and much more. His researches, which were widely circulated, opened up an entire world of microscopic life to the awareness of scientists.
In the 1930s a doctor named Daniel den Hoed worked at the AVL with X-rays and radium radiation. Together with a physicist he spend time refining the measurement methods for the amount of radiation. He discovered that a series of sort radiation treatments would be more effective than one or several longer ones. He was supported by Royal Philips Netherlands and advised to buy a machine that was capable of generating X-rays with shorter wavelength and a stronger invasive capacity. In 1936 Philips introduced a radiation machine that was able to work at ultra-high voltage of 800,000 to 1,000,000 Volts, 'the millionaire'. The NKI-AVL got the machine which was unique in Europe at that time. Nowadays voltages up to 20 MV are used on daily basis. The Erasmus medical center in Rotterdam has named its cancer ward after this remarkable clinician: the Daniel Den Hoed Cancer Center.
in 1949, Queen Wilhelmina founded the Dutch Cancer Society, giving it its Dutch name "Koningin Wilhelmina Fonds" or KWF. Her granddaughter, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, is the current patron of the society. The Society's initial funding came from the "national gift" donated by the Dutch people to Queen Wilhelmina on the occasion of her golden jubilee in 1948. That amount was more than 2 million guilders, and the donations have been coming in ever since. Today people in the Netherlands contribute more than 55 million euro a year to the fight against cancer.