Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

PhD defence by Camilla Grud Nielsen

Assessment Committee

Professor Christoffer Johansen, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor Sumit Gupta, Faculty of Medicine and IHPME, University of Toronto
Professor Arndt Borkhardt, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Haematology, and Immunology, UKD Duesseldorf

Supervisors

Professor Kjeld Schmiegelow
Senior Consultant Bodil Elise Thorhauge Als-Nielsen
Postdoc Liv Andrés-Jensen

Department

Department of Clinical Medicine

Graduate Programme

Clinical Cancer Research

Place

The defence is conducted as a hybrid defence.

To attend the defence in person:
Building: Maersk Tower, Room: Henrik Dam Auditorium, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen N

To attend the defence online:
Please follow the link to attend the defence online: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/63669485896?pwd=0cJvR1krY5YKBhmOX5TtZolqDxkQIA.1
MeetingID, if relevant: 636 6948 5896
Password, if relevant: 797694

Email address to gain access to the thesis: camilla.grud.nielsen@regionh.dk.
You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.
Recipients of copies of the thesis are not allowed to share or distribute it due to copyright compliance.

Short description of the thesis

More than 90% of children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are cured today, but many survivors experience serious long-term complications caused by their treatment. Despite increasing focus on late effects, these complications are not systematically considered when evaluating treatment success. This PhD thesis focuses on Severe Toxicity-event-free Survival (ST-EFS), a novel outcome measure that integrates severe, long-term toxicities with traditional survival outcomes to provide a more comprehensive assessment of treatment success. The thesis presents the methodological refinement of ST-EFS, applies the measure for the first time in national and international patient cohorts, and explores survivors’ experiences of living with the long-term consequences of cure.