Yearly, 22, 200 Canadians are diagnosed with lung cancer, with 80-85% of the cases being non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With diagnoses being predominantly in the advanced stages, prognosis is poor and quality of life (QoL) becomes the focus of treatment. The main symptom cachexia, issues a loss of strength and impacts on an important aspect of QoL, physical function. Physical function is predominately assessed subjectively. Lately performance-based measures are gaining in popularity. One performance measure, the chair rise test, has not been validated in the NSCLC population and was the objective of this study. / Subjects completed the chair rise test, 6MWT, hand grip, and the SF-36 pre and post chemotherapy. Evidence for construct and discriminant validity but not predictive validity was provided for the chair rise test. The 60-second chair rise may be too strenuous for persons with severe disability but a standardized timed-based chair rise test is needed.

The goal of conformal radiation techniques is to improve local tumour control through dose escalation to target volumes while at the same time sparing surrounding healthy tissue. Respiratory motion is known to be the largest intra-fractional organ motion and the most significant source of uncertainty in treatment planning for chest lesions. A method to account for the effects of respiratory motion is to use four-dimensional radiotherapy. While analytical models are useful, it is essential that the motion problem in radiotherapy is addressed by both modeling as well as experimentally studies so that different obstacles can be overcome before clinical implementation of a motion compensation method. Validation of techniques aimed at measuring and minimizing the effects of respiratory motion require a realistic dynamic deformable phantom for use as a gold standard. In this work we present the design, construction, performance and deformable image registration of a novel breathing, tissue equivalent phantom with a deformable lung that can reproducibly emulate 3D non-isotropic lung deformations according to any real lung-like breathing pattern. The phantom consists of a Lucite cylinder filled with water containing a latex balloon stuffed with dampened natural sponges. The balloon is attached to a piston that mimics the human diaphragm. Nylon wires and Lucite beads, emulating vascular and bronchial bifurcations, were glued at various locations, uniformly throughout the sponges. The phantom is capable of simulating programmed irregular breathing patterns with varying periods and amplitudes. A deformable, tissue equivalent tumour, suitable for holding radiochromic film for dose measurements was embedded in the sponge. Experiments for 3D motion assessment, motion reproducibility as well as deformable image registration and validation are presented using the deformable phantom.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Physics. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/09). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, August, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-147).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 2007. / "December 2007." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: B, page: 7225. Advisers: Margaret R. Spitz; Ann Coker. Includes bibliographical references.