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Investigation Of Radiation Injury In The Esophagus From Definitive Chemoradiation Therapy Using Novel Imaging Biomarkers, Joshua S. Niedzielski

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Radiation injury in the esophagus occurs with high frequency from the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Radiation esophagitis is an acute normal tissue toxicity that negatively affects treatment efficacy by limiting dose and potentially interrupting radiation therapy. Clinical quantification of this toxicity is typically achieved by utilizing physician grading scales, assigning complication severity on an ordinal scale of symptom presentation and/or physician chosen interventions. These criteria are subjective in nature, both from the physician assigning the grade and the patient reporting the symptom. Furthermore, radiation therapy planning guidelines for the esophagus are derived from toxicity prediction models utilizing …