Ruud Bekkers

Prof. Dr. Ruud L. M. Bekkers MD, PhD.
Prof. dr. Ruud Bekkers was trained in the Netherlands as a gynecologist and did his fellowship in gynecologic oncology in Australia, UK and the Netherlands. He wrote a PhD on the role of HPV in the management of patients with CIN, has published > 100 papers on this subject, and wrote several book chapters on cervical abnormalities. Presently he is working as a gynecologic oncologist at the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven and is appointed as professor at the Maastricht University, the Netherlands on prevention of gynecological cancers. He is chair of the Dutch colposcopy society, and board member of both the EFC as well as the IFCPC.
The interest in cervical (pre)malignancies started while working as a tropical doctor in rural South Africa. Many women presented there with cervical cancer next to being HIV positive, due to a lack of screening for both HIV and cervical abnormalities. Back in the Netherlands, he trained to become a gynecologist, wrote his PhD and did a fellow ship in gynecologic oncology.
From 2005 till 2016, he worked as a gynecologic oncologist in the Radboud University Medical Center, the Netherlands. The areas of special interest were minimal invasive (robotic) surgery, and prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. Besides this he became director of O&G training from 2011-2016.
In 2016 he moved to the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven to become head of the gynecologic oncology unit, while he kept a research appointment at the RadboudUMC. In 2019 he was appointed as a professor at the Maastricht University, where to he moved all his research activities.
The present interest besides HPV vaccination and HPV screening is in the microenvironment of CIN lesions and its role in the natural course of the disease.