Associate Professor, Division of Medical Physics, Department of Oncology, University of Alberta

Senior Medical Physicist, Dept. of Medical Physics, CCI

MSc Medical Physics: Alberta-1991
PhD Medical Physics: Alberta-1995

Fellow: Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine
Member: Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine

Research Interests

One area of research is the incorporation of functional and biological image data in external radiotherapy planning. A major obstacle still to be overcome is the registration and fused display of biological imaging data sets with simulator (CT) data sets. Currently, no software is commercially available for planning external radiotherapies using fused image data sets, such as PET/CT or FMRI/CT.

Another area of interest is the development of a 3D Radionuclide Dosimetry program. Currently, radionuclide dosimetries at the CCI are calculated from planar image data. A significant step forward would be to use either SPECT or PET, both of which provide 3D volumetric data, image data for dosimetry calculations. Again, specifically for SPECT, robust multimodality image registration and fusion is essential for 3D dosimetry calculations.

A final area of research is the assessment of novel radionuclide for PET imaging. Unlike most radionuclides used in gamma camera imaging which have a simple decay scheme, many suggested PET radionuclide have significantly more complicated decay schemes, generally involving unwanted gamma emission close to the 511keV annihilation radiations. For such radionuclides to be clinically useful new acquisition and imaging protocols will need to be developed.

Selected Publications

Roa WH, Yaremko B, McEwan A, Amanie J, Yee D, Cho J, McQuarrie S, Riauka T, Sloboda R, Wiebe L, Loebenberg R, Janicki C,
"Dosimetry Study of [I-131] and [I-125]- Meta-Iodobenzyl Guanidine in a Simulating Model for Neuroblastoma Metastasis",
Technol Cancer Res Treat, 12(1):79-90, February 2013.

Teymurazyan A, Riauka T, Jans HS, Robinson D,
"Properties of Noise in Positron Emission Tomography Images Reconstructed with Filtered-Backprojection and Row-Action Maximum Likelihood Algorithm",
J. Digit Imaging, 26(3):447-56, June 2013.

A.A. El-Mabhouh, P.N. Nation, J.T. Abele, T.A. Riauka, E. Postema, A.J. McEwan, and J.R. Mercer,
"A conjugate of gemcitabine with bisphosphonate (Gem/BP) shows potential as a targeted bone-specific therapeutic agent in an animal model of human breast cancer bone metastases",
Oncol Res., 19(6):287-95, March 2011.

D.R.C. Rivest, T. Riauka and A. Murtha, B.G. Fallone,
"Assessment of a commercially available automatic deformable registration system,"
J Appl Clin Med Phys, 11(3):101-123, June 2010.

D.R.C.Rivest, T. Riauka, A. Murtha, B.G. Fallone,
"Incorporation of planning contour data into avoxel based deformable registration algorithm for prostate adaptive radiation therapy,"
Phys Med Biol (submitted).

A. Kerhet, C. Small, H. Quon, T. Riauka, L. Schrader, R. Greiner, D. Yee, A. McEwan, W. Roa,
"Application of machine learning methodology for PET-based definition of lung cancer",
Curr Oncol, 17(1):41-47, January 2010.

E.J. Postema, A.J. McEwan, T.A. Riauka, P. Kumar, D.A. Richmond, D.N. Abrams, L.I. Wiebe,
"Initial results of hypoxia imaging using 1-alpha-D: -(5-deoxy-5-[18F]-fluoroarabinofuranosyl)-2-nitroimidazole (18F-FAZA)",
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Im 36(10):1565-73, October 2009.

R.C. Rivest, T. Riauka, A.D. Murtha, B.G. Fallone,
"Prostate positioning errors associated with two automatic registration based image guidance strategies,"
J Appl Clin Med Phys, 10(4):165-175, October 2009.

D.R.C. Rivest, T.A. Riauka, A.D. Murtha, B.G. Fallone,
"Dosimetric implications of two registration based patient positioning methods in prostate image guided radiation therapy (IGRT),"
Radiology and Oncology, 43(3):203-212. September 2009.

A. Kerhet, C. Small, H. Quon, T. Riauka, R. Greiner, A. McEwan, W. Rao,
"Segmentation of lung tumours in positron emission tomography scans: A machine learning approach",
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 5651:146-55, July 2009.

R.E. Marsh, T.A. Riauka, and S.A. McQuarrie,
"A review of basic principles of fractals and their applications to pharmacokinetics",
Invited manuscript, QJ Nuc Med Mol Imaging, 52(3): 278-88, Aug. 2008.

R.E. Marsh and T.A. Riauka,
"Modeling fractal-like drug elimination kinetics using an interacting random-walk model",
Phys. Rev. E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys, 75(3 Pt 1):031902, March 2007.

R.E. Marsh, T.A. Riauka, S.A. McQuarrie,
"Evaluation of a Simulated Annealing Algorithm to Fit Fractal Pharmacokinetic Models to Clinical Data",
J Pharm Pharmaceut Sci, 10(2), 168-179, March 2007.

A. Alexander, A. Murtha, B. Abdulkarim, V. Mehta, M. Wheatley, B. Murray, T.A. Riauka, J. Hanson, D. Fulton, R. Urtasun, A. McEwan, and W. Roa,
"Prognostic Significance of Serial Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopies over the course of radiation therapy for patient with malignant glioma", Clin. Invest. Med. 29(5), 302-312, 2006.

B Yaremko, T Riauka, D Robinson, B Murray, A Alexander, A McEwan and W Roa,
"Thresholding in PET Images of Static and Moving Targets."
Phys. Med. Biol. 50(24),5969-82, 2005.

B Yaremko, T Riauka, D Robinson, B Murray, A McEwan and W Roa,
"Threshold Modification for Tumour Imaging in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Using Positron Emission Tomography."
Nucl. Med. Commun. 26(5), 433-40, 2005.

A Alexander, A Murtha, B Abdulkarim, A Bistritz, S Halls, V Metha, B Murray, T Riauka, R Urtasun, D Fulton and W H Roa,
"Prospective Characterisation of Serial Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Patients with Malignant Glioma Undergoing Radiotherapy."
Current Oncology, 12(1), 18-22, 2005.

A M Syme, C Kirkby, T A Riauka, B G Fallone and S A McQuarrie,
"Monte Carlo Investigation of Single Cell Beta Dosimetry For Intraperitoneal Radionuclide Therapy."
Phys. Med. Biol., 49(10), pp. 1959-1972, 2004.

D Robinson, I M Gagne, T A Riauka, J Duke and W Roa,
"Metallic Copper as a Fiducial Marker for both CT and PET."
Med. Phys. 31(9), pp. 2520-2526, 2004.

A M Syme, C Kirkby, T A Riauka, S A McQuarrie and B G Fallone,
"Monte Carlo Determination of Single Event Spectra For Radionuclides In Intraperitoneal Radionuclide Therapy."
Phys. Med. Biol. 49(10), pp. 1959 – 1972, 2004.