He is an interventional radiologist, who, as a dedicated supervisor, is mentoring two first-year and one second-year students participating in CTM's Ph.D. program. He is highly active in group and project meetings, offering valuable guidance not only to his students but also to others. András Bibok was honored with the Excellent Supervisor Award by the Centre for Translational Medicine.
Dr. Bibok joined CTM's training program as a supervisor last year, his first student was Alexandra Ádám. He is guiding her in the academic world jointly with Balázs Dénes Horváthy. In her first project, she is investigating the effect of radiation lobectomy in patients with liver tumors. This academic year, Dr. Bibok not only mentored Dr. Ádám but also took on two first-year students, Boglárka Tóth and Alexandra Elena Chichirau. “They are exploring procedures that are highly innovative and represent some of the hottest topics in our field. Although they could represent significant advances in medicine, there is still little evidence to prove their effectiveness and safety. That’s why I felt these would be excellent research topics for my students.”
Boglárka Tóth is conducting research on transarterial radioembolization as an MD-Ph.D. student. In her first project, she compares the safety and efficacy of this treatment with that of systemic therapy in cases of liver tumors with portal vein thrombosis. “In transarterial radioembolization, tumors are treated with radioactive isotopes administered through blood vessels. This can be visualized as the isotopes traveling through the bloodstream and being selectively delivered to the tumor. This procedure could even be used for tumors that previously could only be treated with systemic oncological therapies. In our study, we assumed that transarterial radioembolization is more effective and has fewer side effects than systemic cancer treatments, and we are already seeing that Boglárka’s research supports this. We are currently writing an article based on our findings and will soon submit it to a scientific journal. We are confident that, following publication, transarterial radioembolization can be included in the official oncology guidelines.”
Another first-year student of Dr. Bibok is Alexandra Elena Chichirau, a medical doctor, conducting research on prostatic artery embolization. This procedure is a non-surgical treatment primarily used for benign prostatic hyperplasia. In this method, very small blood vessels feeding the prostate are blocked, causing the prostate to shrink. As a result, the lower urinary tract symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia are reduced.
“Prostatic artery embolization can be performed using liquid embolic agents or microparticles ranging from 100 to 500 micrometers in size. In her research, Alexandra is evaluating which option is better in terms of efficacy and safety. The challenge with microparticles, which have been available for some time, is that they cannot be clearly visualized in the blood vessels during administration, and if they end up in an inappropriate location, they can cause problems. In contrast, liquid embolic agents, which have recently come into use for prostatic artery embolization, can be clearly visualized during injection. We believe that using liquid embolic agents allows faster embolization and thus exposes the physician to less radiation. Alexandra is making good progress with her research on this topic; she has already obtained her results and begun writing her manuscript. We hope to be able to submit her article to a journal by the fall.
(Emese Szabó)