ROSIE TWOMEY
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Calgary (Canada)
11/2016 – 06/2019 – Calgary, Canada
Tailored training interventions to reduce cancer-related fatigue (Principal Supervisor – Cosupervisor: Prof Nicole Culos-Reed)
Biography
Dr. Rosie Twomey is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Her research is supported by the Ohlson Research Initiative and the O’Brien Institute of Public health. Her current research is focused on improving care for patients undergoing major surgery for head and neck cancer, and the potential role of exercise prehabilitation in this population. Dr Twomey is an exercise physiologist with >10 years of research and teaching experience. Her doctoral research investigated the neurophysiology of fatigue and the limits to exercise performance at high altitude/in severe hypoxia. During her PhD, her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This devastating life event challenged her worldview as a scientist and she transitioned her research into exercise oncology, with the ultimate goal of improving quality of life for people diagnosed with cancer. She joined the Neuromuscular Fatigue Lab at the University of Calgary to work with Prof. Millet in 2017, leading a randomized controlled trial investigating tailored exercise interventions for people with cancer-related fatigue. As part of this transition, Dr. Twomey developed expertise in behavioural clinical trials and patient-oriented research. She has been invited to present her research internationally, as well as to people living with cancer-related fatigue in her local community. Alongside their collaboration on cancer-related fatigue, Drs. Millet and Twomey have worked together on several studies exploring research areas such as exercise after head and neck cancer treatment and non-invasive brain stimulation. Dr. Twomey advocates for more open and reproducible research practices in exercise science, is a founding member of the Society for Transparency, Openness and Replication in Kinesiology (STORK), and sits on the steering committee for the SportRχiv preprint server.
Main publications associated with this work
Colin Lavigne, Harold Lau, George Francis, S Nicole Culos-Reed, Guillaume Y Millet, Rosie Twomey. Neuromuscular function and fatigability in people diagnosed with head and neck cancer before versus after treatment. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2020 Jun.
Colin Lavigne, Rosie Twomey, Harold Lau, George Francis, S Nicole Culos-Reed, Guillaume Y Millet. Feasibility of eccentric overloading and neuromuscular electrical stimulation to improve muscle strength and muscle mass after treatment for head and neck cancer. J Cancer Surviv. 2020 May 24.
Jérôme Koral, Dustin J Oranchuk, James G Wrightson, Rosie Twomey, Guillaume Y Millet . Mechanisms of neuromuscular fatigue and recovery in unilateral versus bilateral maximal voluntary contractions. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2020 Apr 1.
Rosie Twomey, Samuel T Yeung, James G Wrightson, Guillaume Y Millet, S Nicole Culos-Reed. Post-exertional malaise in people with chronic cancer-related fatigue. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020 Feb 24.
James Graeme Wrightson, Rosie Twomey, Samuel Tin Yan Yeung, Guillaume Y Millet. No effect of tDCS of the primary motor cortex on isometric exercise performance or perceived fatigue. Dec 17.
Dustin J Oranchuk, Jérôme Koral, Gustavo R da Mota, James G Wrightson, Rogério Soares, Rosie Twomey, Guillaume Y Millet. Effect of total blood flow occlusion on neuromuscular fatigue following sustained maximal isometric contraction. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2019 Dec 6.
Rosie Twomey, Tristan Martin, John Temesi, S Nicole Culos-Reed, Guillaume Y Millet. Tailored exercise interventions to reduce fatigue in cancer survivors: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial. BMC Cancer. 2018 Jul 24.
Rosie Twomey, S. Nicole Culos-Reed, Guillaume Y. Millet, Harold Lau. Fatigue following head and neck cancer radiotherapy: an unrecognized side effect of modern radiotherapy techniques? Translational Cancer Research. 2017 Dec.
Rosie Twomey, Saied Jalal Aboodarda, Renata Kruger, S Nicole Culos-Reed, JohnTemesi, Guillaume Y Millet. Neuromuscular fatigue during exercise: Methodological considerations, etiology and potential role in chronic fatigue. Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology. 2017 April 20.