Programme

Overview: This Point-Counterpoint session discusses what image-guided brachytherapy can achieve in the management of gynecological malignancies, with emphasis on patients with poor response to treatment. The debate will contrast two differing paradigms. One argument is that individualized, personalized brachytherapy planning can achieve excellent outcomes despite poor initial response, while the counterargument is that spatially fractionated radiotherapy should be the replacement strategy in this subgroup. This session offers participants critical insights into two different approaches to optimizing local control in difficult-to-treat cases.

Overview: This session will focus on recent advances in gynecological cancers. This will discuss the developments in cervical cancer image guided brachytherapy and how to bring an equivalent level of care in resource variable setting. The advances in implementation of high precision external radiation and adaptations for the same will be discussed. The sessions will subsequently also discuss the newer evidence on molecular markers in endometrial cancer and implementing this in clinical practice.

Overview: This session will explore how hypofractionation is transforming prostate radiotherapy, from the biological principles underpinning ultra-short treatment schedules to the practical challenges of implementing them at scale. Landmark clinical trials have established hypofractionation and stereotactic radiotherapy as standards of care, while advances in AI, MRI guidance and adaptive radiotherapy are enabling increasingly precise treatment, with one- or two-fraction curative therapy now within reach for selected patients. The session will also discuss how hypofractionation can improve access to radiotherapy by increasing treatment capacity and reducing patient burden, alongside the education, quality assurance, clinical guidelines and health policies needed for successful implementation.