The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is organizing the third International Conference on Advances in Radiation Oncology (ICARO3), following the success of the previous conferences (ICARO and ICARO2) in 2009 and 2017. The advances in radiotherapy in the last years have been striking, although numerous challenges are still to be faced, including achieving access to high standard cancer care in many countries. New radiotherapy techniques have been implemented in the past decade, including three-dimensional conformal therapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, image guided radiation therapy, tomotherapy, new brachytherapy and unsealed-source techniques, and proton and heavy ion therapy. The increased use of these complex techniques, coupled with the need to treat more patients in less time, will continue to drive a reliance on high-end technologies and impose a financial burden on health care programmes. In addition, the development and implementation of a quality assurance programme for these new techniques is a major challenge in Member States.
The conference, which will be held online as a virtual event from 16-19 February 2021, will give health care professionals an opportunity to review the current developments in clinical applications in the fields of radiation oncology, radiation biology and medical physics, with a view to addressing the challenge of cancer management in Member States.
It will also critically examine the pivotal role of emerging radiotherapy techniques in tackling the health challenges common to many Member States.
The virtual educational event will consist of keynote lectures which will be available both as a broadcast and on-demand, thematic refresher courses and workshops, and e-poster showcases.
An appropriate number of accredited continuing medical education (CME) credits will be awarded to participants.
