Bibliography: leaves 241-250. / xviii, 250 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / A multileaf collimator for radiation therapy has been designed that splits each leaf bank into two vertically displaced assemblies or levels with each level consisting of alternate leaves and leaf spaces. The radiation profiles transmitted for image formation through the collimator design were investigated to examine their dependence on the collimator design features. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics and Mathematical Physics, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 241-250. / xviii, 250 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / A multileaf collimator for radiation therapy has been designed that splits each leaf bank into two vertically displaced assemblies or levels with each level consisting of alternate leaves and leaf spaces. The radiation profiles transmitted for image formation through the collimator design were investigated to examine their dependence on the collimator design features. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics and Mathematical Physics, 2000

Thesis (M.Sc.) -- Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1984. / Bibliography : leaves 18-19. Also available online.

Thesis (MTech (Biomedical Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / The principal objective in irradiating tumours is to permanently inhibit their reproductive ability. More than half of all malignancies are primarily treated with radiation but tumours of different histologies differ greatly in response to radiotherapy as well as individual patients displaying great variability in response to treatment. The need for reliable assays predicting tumour and normal tissue response to radiation is therefore a prime objective of clinical oncology. The requirement of such a test would be that it would relate to clinical outcome Le. the possibility of recurrence of disease or of tumour control as well as indicating whether the treatment should be administered more aggressively or not. These are important factors that, if known, could be used as part of the treatment planning in radiotherapy and selection of best therapy modality. The colony forming c1onogenic assay has been shown to be a reliable reflection of a cells ability to maintain reproductive integrity after radiation exposure. In this study it has successfully been used to demonstrate the surviving fraction of cells but has the limitation of cells needing to process the ability to form colonies. Cells from primary tumours do not readily form colonies and may display poor anchorage making this assessment of radiosensitivity in the clinic less desirable. These data are presented together with unpublished data obtained using the micronucleus assay. Micronuclei frequency (MNF) varies in different cell types with test doses and provides a means to rank the cell in terms of response to radiation. In normal cells a linear inverse correlation exits between MNF and cell survival. However, MNF does not rank malignant cells according to their intrinsic survival to radiation displaying a weak correlation between MNF and cell survival.

Thesis (MTech (Radiography))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010. / The focus of this study is the role of the Radiation Therapist (RTT) in the assessment of pain in cancer patients. The study was carried out at a Radiotherapy Department of a large Teaching Hospital in Ghana and addressed the following research questions; 1) What is the role of the RTT in the assessment of pain in cancer patients, 2) Why should the RTTs’ role be extended to include pain assessment, 3) What are the challenges for the RTT when taking on the role of pain assessment in radiation oncology and 4) How can pain assessment become a routine role for the RTT in a busy radiation oncology department? 5) How would this extended role of the RTT assist management of patient? This study was conducted because many cancer patients suffer pain and to many, it can be more debilitating than the primary disease itself. The RTTs who are involved in the daily management of cancer patients during their radiation treatment can find it stressful to witness their patients going through such pain particularly when they do not have a role in the management of pain. In Ghana, there are few radiation oncologists (ROs) and therefore an extended scope for RTTs, that includes pain assessment and a meaningful contribution to the management of their patients’ pain, would be advantageous to all. A mixed method research approach was adopted for gathering quantitative and qualitative data. This included data collection of; interview, observation and review of existing document. A pain questionnaire SF-MPQ-2 by Melzack (2009) was adapted as a tool for assessing pain in the study participants.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Oncology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Doctor of Medicine

No description available.

A genetically determined high level of intrinsic normal tissue radiosensitivity may account for the 5% of patients who experience unexpectedly severe normal tissue side effects following radiotherapy. The pre-treatment identification of these individuals by a diagnostic test or “predictive assay “ may allow appropriate modification of treatment plans and improve the therapeutic index of radiotherapy. Results from studies of cell-based assays measuring the response of a single cell type taken from patients to in vitro irradiation have been inconsistent, leading to the opinion of many that they are of no value in the prediction of normal tissue radiosensitivity. A systematic review of the literature presented here, however, suggests that poor methodology of study design often with inadequate control for those factors other than normal tissue radiosensitivity which influence radiotherapy toxicity and lack of reporting of assay precision means that it is difficult to form any conclusions, positive or negative about the diagnostic accuracy of the cell-based assays studied so far. Analysis of individual patient data extracted from these studies suggests that at least some of these assays may possess some discriminatory value. This finding justified an attempt to develop a novel cell-based assay based on the kinetics of radiation-induced .H2AX in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Assay failure rate was high and intra- and inter-sample assay reproducibility was poor for quantification by microscopy but were better for flow cytometric analysis. A study of 8 volunteers, however, demonstrated that intra-individual variation was higher than inter-individual variation in assay results, strongly suggesting that poor assay reproducibility due to technical or biological factors may limit the assay’s potential to identify radiosensitive individuals. This suspicion needs to be confirmed in a clinical study of patients of known radiosensitivity. As blood sample storage conditions affect assay results these will need to be standardized to prevent confounding of results.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Oncology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy