Dr Cobben trained in Maastricht (Maastro Clinic) until 2012 and worked as a consultant clinical oncologist and clinical scientist in the Netherlands and Northern Ireland until 2017.
He worked from 2017 until 2020 as a senior lecturer and honorary consultant in radiation oncology at the University of Manchester and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, with a specialist interest in lung cancer radiotherapy focused on the development of advanced radiotherapy techniques (e.g. MR-linac), improving image guided radiotherapy, and measuring and improving quality of lung cancer care.
In 2020, Dr Cobben joined the The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and University of Liverpool as consultant clinical oncologist and honorary senior lecturer for lung cancer and sarcoma radiotherapy.
He has two research passions. Firstly, improving the care for (frail) lung cancer patients in our region by developing treatment decision support tools, which will predict the chance for admissions, mortality and side effects. Secondly, improving image guided radiotherapy and adaptive radiotherapy techniques. Examples of these are MR-guided radiotherapy for sarcoma and lung cancer and upright radiotherapy to better spare healthy tissue.
He is a co-applicant, collaborator and PhD supervisor on UKRI research project ‘Upright radiotherapy: rapidly realising clinical and economic benefits’ (£1,700,000 awarded) and National Institute for Health and Care Research project ‘Four-dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (4D-MRI) to guide lung radiotherapy’ (£290,000 awarded).