Join us for an enriching experience at this year's Annual Meeting, where we will delve into special sessions designed to enhance your experience. Explore interactive workshop sessions for immersive education, extended sessions for in-depth topic exploration, and engaging storytelling sessions where voices from both cancer survivors and experts intertwine, sharing insightful experiences. Don't miss this opportunity to learn and connect with others.
This session will provide an update to radiation oncology residency program directors and program coordinators on the work of the Review Committee for Radiation Oncology in the Next Accreditation System, including a program update, changes in program requirements and NAS accreditation reviews. Additional topics will include the application of the changes to the program requirements, information related to other ACGME initiatives and resources, and will provide an opportunity for attendees to share their challenges and local solutions. This session will provide information that will be applicable to attendees to apply to their own programs.
*Please note that this workshop is an additional cost.
$150 - Member/Nonmember
$0 - Student/Resident/Fellows/Members-in-training/Patient Advocates
Radiopharmaceuticals are an increasingly utilized therapeutic option for the treatment of malignancies. This session will focus on clinical indications, difficult cases, medical physics considerations, development of standard operating procedures for clinical implementation, billing and safe theranostic delivery practices. Specifically, Radium-223, Lutetium-177 dotatate and Lutetium-177 PSMA-617 will be discussed. The session will include didactic presentation from physician experts from radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, medical oncology and medical physicists, with question and answer sessions to discuss practice implementation in various clinical settings (i.e., academic hospital vs. community practice, nuclear medicine vs. radiation oncology). The purpose of the Master Class is to increase physician, physicist, billing and administration understanding on how to effectively and safely develop a radiopharmaceutical program at their respective institutions.
This session will be moderated by Dr. Scout who directs the National LGBT Cancer Network. Dr. Scout will provide an overview of current best practice techniques for establishing and maintaining clinic environments that are welcoming, safe and inclusive for SGM patients. After the overview, participants will be randomly assigned to small groups with one to two content experts, where they will be presented with three real-world scenarios designed around SGM patients with cancer, including the AYA population. To allow sufficient practice, each attendee will have the chance to workshop their communication and interaction skills in one of three distinct scenarios (20 minutes allowed per scenario), as well as provide constructive feedback to the other small group members.
These scenarios are designed to enhance provider competence for navigating discussions regarding: 1) sexual health and treatment-related sexual function, 2) gender identity in adolescent and young adult SGM patient populations, 3) cancer treatment concerns for patients on gender-affirming hormone therapy.
The session planners anticipate six small groups for an estimated 60 participants (10 per table), as small group sizes will facilitate honest, open conversations between attendees. Each table will be guided by one to two moderators with respective expertise in pelvic malignancy, AYA health and breast cancer. All participants will have the opportunity to practice the communication strategies in a “brave” space where "mistakes" are welcomed, feedback encouraged, ideas shared all without repercussion. This will be followed by a wrap-up where learning objectives will be summarized for each of the scenarios and recommendations for best practices will be discussed.
The session is designed to provide residents, trainees and junior faculty with information on grant writing. It will provide educational information and then an interactive breakout session. There will be highly valuable information regarding the development of specific aims, the revision process and the NIH officer perspective. There will be a unique opportunity for Grant Writing Office Hours outside of the session in the Early Career Lounge.
This session will be devoted to the basic scientific innovations, translational physics developments, and clinical deployments of adaptive radiotherapy workflows for the improvement of patient treatments and outcomes. The speakers include physicists, physicians and a dosimetrist from multiple institutions where adaptive radiotherapy techniques have been developed and deployed for clinical treatments, representing both photon and proton therapy and CBCT, MR and PET imaging systems.
Participants at this session will learn the rationale for combining radiation therapy with different types of immunotherapy, as well as the factors that need to be considered as they may affect the efficacy of the treatment, including the radiation dose and field, and sequencing of radiation with immunotherapy. Attendees will gain an understanding of the current status of knowledge of the mechanisms of action of combinations of immunotherapeutic agents and radiation that can inform treatment decisions. Examples of specific clinical situations and clinical cases will be discussed.
A medical error can leave a lasting negative effect on health care workers. Intrusive feelings of guilt, doubt, fear and regret are common, and this emotional distress can lead to lasting effects on a provider's ability and interest in further practice. Health care workers experiencing trauma from committing error have been referred to as “second victims.” The consequences of error can thus ripple outwards, depriving a community of a practitioner who is most likely skilled, compassionate and no more risk prone than anyone else in their role. Preventing disengagement, burnout and dropout because of the second victim phenomenon is an important element of a robust safety culture.
This session will address and acknowledge this overlooked, deeply harmful phenomenon. Leaders in radiation safety will discuss their own experiences navigating practice after being involved in or witnessing an error. An architect of the Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) program will share techniques in how best to support second victims. They will share what they have learned in their peer support program providing psychological first aid to health care workers in the years since its implementation. There will also be exploration of future areas of improvement, drawing in part from other industries, to support those experiencing the second victim phenomenon. We intend this session to lead to increased awareness of the second victim phenomenon and empower practitioners to take action against it at their own facilities.
Oncologists are faced with challenging patient discussions in the curative and palliative setting, particularly when caring for the pediatric patient. In the curative setting, treatment may come at the cost of significant long-term treatment related side effects that can be life altering, and difficult for caregivers to comprehend. In the palliative setting, one tries to balance the benefit of treatment with the added logistics and emotional impact of treating a pediatric patient and the need to effectively communicate to maintain hope. The pediatric radiation oncologist often crosses between children's hospitals and the more adult focused hospital where many of the treatment facilities exist, which can create a sense of isolation. The goal of this session is to provide resources and tools from a multi-disciplinary expert panel to elevate one’s practice to improve physical and emotional sustainability to allow for growth of the pediatric provider.
