The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will convene its 2026 annual meeting around a theme that can be challenging in the field: what are effective strategies for turning radiation oncology's evidence base into meaningful conversation with patients?
"Data can only really serve a purpose that goes so far," Neha Vapiwala, MD, current president of ASTRO, told AuntMinnie. "It's translating it into actual conversation, into meaningful endpoints that patients will actually take away and understand what it means for them, for their lives, for their cancer diagnosis."
On the science front, the meeting introduces a new late-breaking abstract session designed to give investigators with potentially practice-changing findings more flexibility to present closer to the meeting date. In addition, Vapiwala highlighted a joint session with the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) that will focus on clinical applications of AI, with speakers drawn from clinical oncology, medical physics, and technology development.
Also, radiopharmaceutical therapy will feature in a dedicated hands-on workshop alongside a roundtable convening clinicians from academic and community settings, industry, government, and corporate partners. Additional workshops will address brachytherapy and functional radiation medicine, Vapiwala noted.
Vapiwala said one of the meeting’s premier events is the Presidential Science Poster Session, which will showcase top-rated translational work with dedicated faculty discussants at each poster and is structured to drive dialogue around research central to radiation oncology's advancement.
ASTRO 2026 takes place September 26 to 30 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, MA.