DOTmed News is on-site at McCormick Convention Center for the world's leading conference and exhibition for radiation oncology - the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), being held Nov 1-5, 2009.

ASTRO organizers are estimating attendance this year to be about 11,000, with more than 200 exhibitors spanning 108,000 square feet of McCormick Center, and more than 200 concurrent scientific and general sessions offering radiation oncologists, technologists and administrators all the tools and education credits they need to propel their careers forward. This year's ASTRO is convening in conjunction with meetings of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT), the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) and the Society of Radiation Oncology Administrators (SROA).




To kick off our coverage of the 51st annual ASTRO meeting, DOTmed spoke with current President Dr. Tim R. Williams, whose insight into the field led to this year's theme: Radiation Oncology in 2020.

[DOTmed: What is the objective of ASTRO's annual meeting?]

Dr. Williams: ASTRO is the organization responsible for the science of radiation oncology. This is the premier meeting for the specialty and it has the largest representation of radiation oncologists in the world. Every year we get about 2,000 abstracts submitted and this year we have about 1,200 that are going to be presented at the meeting.

As the president, I'm allowed to pick the theme for the annual meeting. Last year was our 50th annual meeting, so that was obvious. This year is a little bit different because of all the changes that are ongoing in health care and in radiation oncology as well. The theme I chose was "Radiation Oncology in 2020" or the near-term future of the specialty. For the presidential course I have some mid-career thought leaders moderating sessions and talking about new advances in oncology and therapy and how that is going to impact patient care over the next 10 to 15 years.

Included in that are various things: Nanotechnology is becoming a big deal in our specialty, for example, adaptive therapy with vaccines and targeted therapy, gene therapy and these types of things are going to be rolling out and emerging over the near-term. It is appropriate to lay out the landscape for the specialty so that the dialogue might be started now and people can consider how these changes are going to be affecting ongoing cancer care.

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