As we keep improving survival chances for patients suffering from cancer, it is increasingly becoming a chronic, manageable disease which must be closely monitored with the help of a multidisciplinary team. This is why ECIO 2024 will feature four tumour board sessions focusing on HCC, liver colorectal metastases, kidney, and lung cancer respectively. In each of these sessions, our non-IR MDT colleagues will present clinical cases.

Another fantastic way to further improve our knowledge on what our tumour board colleagues have to offer and to showcase what we can do will be the “ECIO meets…” sessions which we will host in collaboration with the European SocieTy for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) as well as the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT).

In addition to maintaining continuous communication channels with our multidisciplinary colleagues, we must also make sure we communicate properly with our patients, informing them thoroughly about the pros and cons of the treatments we offer. This is why we have invited a wide spectrum of oncology specialists as well as representatives from patients’ associations to a newly created session examining cancer as a chronic disease and a session entitled “Pain and gain: communication skills”, which we particularly look forward to.

We are also very excited about the clinical studies session in which we will examine different study designs, besides randomized controlled trials, to understand which are both feasible and able to produce relevant results for IO. Another particularly interesting session will be “Meet the PI” in which we will hear about the design and first results of various trials. Artificial intelligence, another important development for the future of our discipline, will be thoroughly discussed during a technical focus session, including aspects such as how it can be used for patient selection, imaging follow-up, and much more.