ABSTRACT CONTENT  

• Abstracts on research obviously not yet performed and results not yet obtained will be rejected.
• Case studies will not be considered (unless if first-in-human).
• Systematic reviews are accepted but literature reviews are not.
• Papers already presented at another meeting will not be considered, unless the previous audience is distinct from the ESTRO 2026 congress audience (e.g. national meetings).  
• Abstracts should include new information and not solely include materials already published. 
• If very similar abstracts are submitted by the same authors, the Scientific Programme Committee reserves the right to select only one of the abstracts and reject any others. 

 

ABSTRACT TOPICS

Brachytherapy

If the main topic of your abstract is related to brachytherapy, the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘Brachytherapy’ topics:

• Breast
• Head & neck, skin, eye
• Gastro-intestinal, paediatric brachytherapy, miscellaneous
• General brachytherapy
• Gynaecology
• Physics
• Urology

 

Clinical

If the main topic of your abstract is clinical treatment and/or outcomes (e.g. tumour response/morbidity), the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘Clinical’ topics.

Prospective interventional clinical trials should be identified as such in the title of the abstract and include The National Clinical Trial number where applicable.

Abstracts on prospective interventional clinical trials, in particular when presenting efficacy endpoints, will be considered for a publicity campaign around the congress, including a press conference, social media communication and follow-up webinars in the Best of ESTRO programme.

• Biomarkers
• Breast
• CNS
• Head & neck
• Lower GI
• Lung
• Gynaecological
• Haematology
• Mixed sites/palliation
• Oligometastatic cancer
• Paediatric tumours
• Sarcoma/skin cancer/malignant melanoma
• Upper GI
• Urology

 

Interdisciplinary

If your abstract does not fit in any of the above categories but is still within the topic of radiation oncology, the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘Interdisciplinary” topics.

These will be evaluated by the Scientific Programme Committee, including all track chairs.

• Education in radiation oncology
• Health economics & health services research

Abstracts submitted to this category may contain the broad range of aspects related to health economics and health services research, such as availability and access to radiotherapy, cost and health outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. In addition, we would particularly welcome abstracts that relate to value-based health care in radiation oncology, including how to support the equitable introduction of evidence-based innovations.

• Global health
• Patient involvement
• Public engagement and visibility of radiotherapy

Abstracts submitted to this category should address the visibility and perception of radiotherapy among the general public, media, research funding bodies (governments, charities etc.) and policymakers. Topics may include strategies to overcome misinformation or negative press, enhance patient and public awareness, and promote the image of radiotherapy as a modern, effective, and patient-centred treatment.

• Quality assurance and risk assessment
• Other (topic of relevance for radiation oncology, NOT related to any other category)

 

Physics

If the main topic of your abstract is related to medical physics, including advanced modelling/statistics etc. (and not focusing on clinical outcomes), the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘Physics’ topics.

Under each topic, machine learning based research may be submitted. There is however also a specific topic fully dedicated to machine learning and clinical applications (excluding imaging and segmentation), see below.

• Autosegmentation

Abstracts submitted under this topic may report on autocontouring, as well as automated image-based identification of structures/landmarks. Application of machine learning/AI models are also considered here.

• Detectors, dose measurement and phantoms

Abstracts submitted to this category may contain classical experimental studies on characterisation of new detectors, phantom development, dose measurement and measurement protocols including radiation protection.

• Dose prediction/calculation, optimisation and applications for photon and electron planning

This category includes studies related to optimisation strategies and algorithms for radiotherapy treatment planning, including IMRT, VMAT, tomotherapy and others, as well as radiotherapy treatment planning, including comparison studies and applications in general for IMRT, VMAT, tomotherapy, and others. Application of machine learning/AI models are also considered here.

• Dose prediction/calculation, optimisation and applications for particle therapy treatment planning

Abstracts for this category invite studies related to optimisation strategies and algorithms for particle therapy treatment planning, including, proton therapy, heavy ion therapy and others, as well as particle therapy treatment planning (including comparison studies such as protons vs photons and others with ion beams) and applications in proton therapy, heavy ion therapy and others.

• Image acquisition and processing

This category aims at abstracts describing studies related to development and validation of (novel) image acquisition and analysis strategies including CT, MRI, PET and potentially other imaging techniques used for radiotherapy planning, prescription, adaptation and outcome prediction. Machine learning/AI abstracts on this category should be submitted to this category.

• Inter-fraction motion management and daily adaptive radiotherapy

This topic invites abstracts related to adaptive radiotherapy with a focus on offline or daily inter-fraction adaptation and image-guided RT. Development and implementation of new adaptation strategies including patient validation can also be submitted.

• Intra-fraction motion management and real-time adaptive radiotherapy

This topic invites abstracts reporting on studies focused on intra-fraction motion management, including online and real-time adaptive radiotherapy.

• Machine learning and AI algorithms (excluding any abstracts focused on application of machine learning/AI)

This topic is specific to machine learning and AI models, focusing on the machine learning/AI aspects of the research (e.g. new model development or new DL concepts). Application of machine learning/AI abstracts should rather be submitted to the specific application category (image correction, segmentation, dose calculation, treatment planning, outcome prediction, etc). 

• Quality assurance and auditing

Abstracts submitted under this topic may report on quality assurance and auditing with a focus on physics and technology including in clinical protocols and trials.

• Radiomics, functional and biological imaging and outcome prediction

Here, studies reporting on physical aspects including image acquisition, analysis methods and/or independent validation of quantitative functional and biological imaging. This may include correlation studies with respect to endpoints during or after fractionated radiotherapy and evaluation of current or future radiotherapy interventions based on quantitative imaging. Includes reports on studies related to outcome/prediction modelling based on classical risk predictions or radiomics, including methodological considerations and statistics. If the focus is on the modelling methodology or advanced statistics for outcome prediction, then the abstract should be submitted here. If the focus is on the outcomes only then the abstract should be submitted to the clinical track.

 

Radiobiology

If the main topic of your abstract is related to radiobiology/experimental radiotherapy using in vivo, in vitro or molecular technique/models, the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘Radiobiology’ topics.

• DNA damage repair
• Normal tissue radiobiology
• Tumour radiobiology
• Immuno-radiobiology
• Microenvironment

 

RTT

If the main topic of your abstract is related to RTT activities, the abstract should be submitted under the following ‘RTT’ topics.

• Patient preparation, immobilisation, and verification protocols
• Patient experience and quality of life
• RTT contouring, target definition, and treatment planning 
• RTT operational practice and workflow innovations
• RTT education, training, and advanced practice