Programming begins Saturday with several workshops and the Practical Radiation Oncology Program.

Practical Radiation Oncology Program

Returning for its seventh year, the Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO) Program continues to support the field with a two-day program specifically designed for the community practice radiation oncologist. This program takes place Saturday and Sunday to accommodate doctors who can’t leave their practice during the week. The content is specifically curated to address the needs of a community practice physician. The program includes disease site reviews, interactive case-based discussions, a coding update and a scientific overview. In addition to being available at a discounted rate as a weekend-only event, the PRO Program is also included in the full registration package allowing all attendees access.

Special Sessions

Check out the myriad of special sessions offered at this year’s Annual Meeting, whether interactive workshop sessions for immersive education, extended sessions for in-depth topic exploration, or engaging storytelling sessions where voices from both cancer survivors and experts intertwine, sharing insightful experiences.

Workshops

• Workshop 01: ACGME Workshop – Review Committee Update and Accreditation Info You Need for Your Program 
  Saturday, September 28 | 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

  • This workshop 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 changes in program requirements and NAS accreditation reviews. It will also provide an opportunity for attendees to share their challenges and local solutions.

• Workshop 02: Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Workshop* 
  Saturday, September 28 |1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. 
  *Please note that this workshop is an additional cost. 

$150 - Member/Nonmember 
$0 - Student/Resident/Fellows/Members-in-training/Patient Advocates

• This special, comprehensive workshop 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.

• Workshop 03: No Longer “Taboo:” An Interactive Workshop for Providers Navigating Compassionate Conversations with Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Patients 
  Sunday, September 29 | 2:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

  • After an overview of current best practices for establishing and maintaining clinic environments that are welcoming, safe and inclusive for SGM patients, 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 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.

• Workshop 04: Grant Writing Workshop 
  Sunday, September 29 | 2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

  • The workshop will provide residents, trainees and junior faculty with information on grant writing, including educational information and an interactive breakout session. There will be highly valuable information regarding the development of specific aims, the revision process and the NIH officer perspective. Also, there will be a unique opportunity for Grant Writing Office Hours outside of the session in the Early Career and Mentoring Lounge.

Extended Sessions

• EDU 04: Fine ART: Ever Evolving Online Adaptive Radiotherapy Technologies and Clinical Innovations 
  Sunday, September 29 | 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

  • 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.

• EDU 05: SITC Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy (ACI) for Radiation Oncologists
  Sunday, September 29 | 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 pm

  • Participants will learn the rationale for combining radiation therapy with different types of immunotherapy and the factors that may affect the efficacy of the treatment, including the radiation dose and field, and sequencing of radiation with immunotherapy. Examples of specific clinical situations and clinical cases will be discussed.

Storytelling Sessions

• Storytelling 01: Overlooked No More: Managing Provider Wellness after Medical Errors 
  Monday, September 30 | 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

  • Health care workers experiencing trauma from committing a medical error have been referred to as “second victims.” 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.

• Storytelling 02: Promoting Sustainability, Resilience and Growth for Providers Caring for the Pediatric Patient: A Storytelling Session 
  Tuesday, October 1 | 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

  • 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 goal of this session is to provide resources and tools from a multidisciplinary expert panel to elevate one’s practice to improve physical and emotional sustainability to allow for growth of the pediatric provider.

Early Career and Mentoring Lounge 

The lounge, located in the East Salon C, Street Level, is a networking space for Early Career members to relax, connect with peers, and meet for one-on-one mentoring. This year, we’ve added programming.* 

SATURDAY
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
Open all day for one-on-one mentoring sessions; No formal programming is scheduled. 

SUNDAY
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. 
Early Career Committee Meeting, open to all Early Career attendees. 

12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. 
How to Become a FASTRO 

2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. 
Explore RTAnswers on Epic MyChart Care Companion 

2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
One-on-One: Hands On MyChart Care Companion 

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Speed Mentoring 

6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. 
Informal Early Career Reception, Cash Bar Monday 

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. 
ASTRO Committee Fair 

10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. 
Speed Mentoring 

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Grant Writing Office Hours 

3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m 
Plenary Debrief 

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Grant Writing Office Hours 

3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Explore RTAnswers on Epic MyChart Care Companion 

4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. 
One-on-One: Hands on MyChart Care Companion Tuesday 

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. 
Grant Writing Office Hours 

1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. 
Speed Mentoring 

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. 
Grant Writing Office Hours 

*Current as of July 17, 2024

Speed Mentoring is back!

Speed Mentoring is a series of short, focused conversations on specific topics, and we are excited to announce its return this year, bigger and better than ever! We have a lineup of three days of impactful sessions! Visit www.astro.org/speedmentoring for the full list of topics and mark your calendar to attend one, or all, of these scheduled sessions: 

Sunday, September 29 | 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Monday, September 30 | 10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. 
Tuesday, October 1| 1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.

Daily eContouring cases

New this year! ASTRO will feature a Contouring Case of the Day. Each day of the Annual Meeting, a case will be posted on the meeting website with a case description, possible treatment plan, image series and the question “How would you contour for this patient?” Attendees will have the opportunity to review the information and weigh in how they would contour for the selected case. Each day will feature a different presenter and disease site. The case will highlight challenges in contouring the case and will also feature resources on contouring, including guidelines and helpful hints that would assist in contouring similar cases.

Following each day’s Contouring Case of the Day, expert commentary will be given by the presenter of the case on how they contoured the case. For some cases, there may not be one right answer and experts will provide alternating opinions with rationale on how they would contour the case. A follow-up discussion will occur in the Annual Meeting ROhub Community as well as on ASTRO’s social media channels. Participants will be entered into a drawing for free ASTRO merchandise.

RO-ILS – 10 Years, 850 facilities, 37,000 events

RO-ILS: Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System® launched 10 years ago, fulfilling a commitment of ASTRO’s Target Safely campaign. The program aggregates errors, near misses, and other operational issues from diverse practices across the country in a standardized, radiation-oncology specific format under the auspices of the federal Patient Safety Act. The data is federally protected and confidential, giving assurances to users that the data is in safe hands. In the first decade of the program, over 850 facilities across the United States have enrolled in the free program, more than 37,000 events have been reported and over 60 written education resources have been released. ASTRO will be celebrating 10 years of RO-ILS through various events during the Annual Meeting. To learn more, visit astro.org/roils10year.

The success of the RO-ILS program is made possible by sponsors ASTRO and AAPM; supporters, including Varian, Sun Nuclear, ASRT, and AAMD, and importantly, RO-ILS users and volunteers.

Survivor Circle

Stop by the Survivor Circle booth to learn more about this year’s Survivor Circle Grants recipients: Smith Center for Healing and the Arts and Touch4Life.

Based in our host city of Washington, DC, the Smith Center Healing for the Arts is motivated by a mission to develop and promote healing practices that explore physical, emotional and mental wellness by utilizing the arts. Since 1996, the Center has specifically done this by providing meaningful cancer retreats, support groups, healing and stress reduction sessions, creativity workshops, patient navigation, nutrition classes and resources for people dealing with a cancer journey.

Touch4Life is committed to cancer health equity focused on biomarker and genetic testing, with an overall mission to increase the breast health IQ of BIPOC and underserved communities and eliminate disparities in breast cancer outcomes. When Touch4Life’s founder learned that her access to clinical trials and precision medicine were not widely offered to Black patients, she dedicated her life to educating and empowering others. While based in Maryland, the nature of Touch4Life’s mission extends to educate across states as they bring their information to conferences and online events and via their website.

Learn more about these two incredible organizations at the Survivor Circle booth, and while there, take a few minutes to relax, recharge and add some color to the communal coloring board.