The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Docent Päivi Maria Lähteenmäki, Turku University Hospital, Finland
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Trude Reinfjell, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Emeritus Thor Willy Ruud Hansen, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Anna Bjerre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor II Ellen Ruud, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
During the last five decades, survival rates for childhood leukemia and lymphoma have improved substantially. This improvement has led to increased focus on late effects in terms of both physical and mental health.
The aims of the thesis were to assess outcome in 160 adult long-term survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), mean 23 years after diagnosis, with focus on knowledge of late effects, neurocognitive functions, cardiac function and exercise capacity. The questionnaire-based substudy on health-related quality of life included 155 lymphoma survivors in addition.
ALL-survivors had limited knowledge of their risk of late effects, and almost half of the survivors were not aware of this risk at all.
ALL survivors treated exclusively with chemotherapy had no impairment in general intellectual ability, but significantly poorer performance on a group level in processing speed, executive functions, and working memory than controls. While almost half of the survivors had no impairment in any of the cognitive domains tested, others showed severe deficits in several domains. This impairment was not associated with treatment intensity.
Approximately 1 of 10 ALL survivors had impaired cardiac function. Anthracycline therapy, even in low cumulative doses, was associated with lower measures of left ventricular function and impaired exercise capacity.
Significantly more ALL and lymphoma survivors experienced poor quality of life (32%) compared to controls from the general population (19%). Several factors related to lifestyle and emotional functioning (fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and obesity) were strongly associated with poor health-related quality of life in survivors and could be amenable for targeted interventions.
This thesis adds to the knowledge on late effects and risk factors for poor health-related quality of life after childhood ALL and lymphoma and may contribute to a better and targeted follow-up of these survivors.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.