It’s five years and still going strong for BIR’s radiotherapy and oncology meetings

Submitted by chair Dr Keith Langmack and the Reverend Canon Dr Mike Kirby of the BIR’s radiotherapy and oncology special interest group committee

In 2020, The British Institute of Radiology’s radiotherapy and oncology special interest group committee received requests from industry partners and radiotherapy professionals to hold a focused, multidisciplinary national meeting solely on radiotherapy and oncology. Plans were well placed until COVID-19 struck, and we are all familiar with the effect the pandemic had on our professions and, not least, our patients.

But in 2021 we launched the first event, BIRTO21, albeit fully online. It began a series of annual UK meetings, covering a wide range of state-of-the-art topics and themes, with invited and proffered talks, e-posters, teaching sessions, plenary keynote and prize presentations – all shared by clinicians, radiographers, physicists, dosimetrists, engineers and others. The meetings were summarised in a poster at the Association for Radiation Research’s annual conference 2025 alongside a dedicated BIR/ARR collaborative session on radiotherapy. Previous meetings have include:

• Prize lectures for the BIR’s Medal of Outstanding International Achievement. In 2023, Professor Soren Bentzen spoke on ‘Radiation oncology in the era of data science’ and this year Professor Marco Durante gives an overview on ‘New frontiers in particle therapy’.
• A focus on the patient voice, with plenary sessions now considered central to our meetings. One can lose sight of the person at the centre of the treatment – the patient – when discussing technological advancements in radiotherapy. These sessions help bring the patient back front and centre, with notable talks from (in 2022) a gynaecology clinical nurse specialist undergoing treatment for gynaecological cancer herself. This year there is a powerful talk from a patient discussing her personal experiences with the late effects of head and neck radiotherapy.
• Talks on adaptive radiotherapy, a topic that has featured since the inception of these meetings. Adapting the treatment dose distribution to daily changes in anatomy, while the patient is on the treatment couch, could be a game changer for tumours very close to critical structures. As the technology to do so becomes more available, this will become a practical benefit to more patients.
• Discussions on AI. As well as influencing radiological procedures, AI is playing a growing role in radiotherapy, through treatment planning and in making adaptive radiotherapy practical. Our 2024 meeting devoted a day to AI education – from the basics of AI to its practical use in contouring, planning and beyond. Its feature in future meetings is highly likely.

BIR president Dr Nick Screaton said: “Since 2020 we have been working with radiotherapy and oncology colleagues to create a space for them to meet, share ideas and evolve. We bring together entire radiotherapy and imaging communities – along with all the teams involved – to collaborate more effectively and ultimately improve patient care. Our multidisciplinary approach is what sets us apart. We look forward to welcoming you to our annual two-day meeting next year.”

The dates for BIRTO26 are February 12-13, 2026. The call for abstracts closes on October 17, 2025.

Picture: chair of the BIR radiotherapy and oncology special interest group Dr Keith Langmack opens BIRTO25.

This news story has been sponsored by the companies concerned and does not represent the views or opinions of RAD Magazine.