Program notes — ASTRO 2026¶

Internal pre-meeting working file. Tracks, expected Plenary slate, key trial watch list, AI-tools secondary track, NRG / RTOG-Foundation cooperative-group calendar, key dates. Status: ~4.5 months pre-meeting (as of May 11, 2026). Anything not yet officially published is flagged.

Key dates¶

Date	Event	Notes
(passed) Mar 2026	Abstract submission deadline	Standard ASTRO calendar — early-March deadline for proffered papers + posters
May 14, 2026	Abstract acceptance notifications	Authors notified of acceptance + presentation type (oral / poster / digital poster). Plenary / LBA decisions communicated separately.
Late summer 2026	Scientific program goes live	Full session grid, Plenary slate (3–5 top-rated abstracts), LBA placeholder count
~6 weeks pre-meeting	Plenary slate announced publicly	Trial titles + presenters released; abstract bodies still embargoed until day of
~3–4 weeks pre-meeting	Press kit drops	Embargoed media briefings, "predict the plenary" preview pieces from trade press
Sep 26, 2026 (Sat)	Pre-meeting day	Refresher courses, workshops, residents' day; exhibit hall load-in
Sep 27, 2026 (Sun)	Meeting opens	Presidential Address, named lectures, first scientific sessions; Exhibit Hall opens
Sep 28, 2026 (Mon)	Day 2	Full scientific program; Clinical Trials sessions; LBA session (most years)
Sep 29, 2026 (Tue)	PLENARY DAY (typical)	3–5 top-rated abstracts unopposed, general assembly. The practice-changing slot.
Sep 30, 2026 (Wed)	Closing day	Final oral sessions, residents' track wrap-up; Exhibit Hall closed

Sources: ASTRO 2026 home, Abstract Guidelines, General Information, Exhibit Hall Schedule.

Venue & logistics¶

Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC), 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA. South Boston Waterfront / Seaport District.
Hotel blocks: Seaport-area hotels (Westin, Renaissance, Aloft) + downtown blocks via ASTRO housing portal.
Attendance: ~11,000 in-person (2025 SF baseline) + virtual registrants.
Theme: "Data to Dialogue: Communicating Radiotherapy's Value to Advance Care" — emphasizes payer-coverage / value-evidence framing (relevant to the proton / FLASH / SBRT-fractionation trials that drive Medicare LCD conversations).
2027 / 2028 future meetings (for planning continuity): Future Annual Meetings.

Plenary Session — expected Tue Sep 29, 2026¶

The Plenary is the practice-changing slot. ASTRO Plenary admits 3–5 top-rated abstracts in an unopposed general assembly. Trials are scored on scientific merit + practice impact. Slate is announced ~6 weeks pre-meeting.

Pre-meeting watch list (candidates from public toplines + cooperative-group calendars + analyst previews — to be reconciled when slate is announced):

Likely candidate	Cooperative group / sponsor	Why it's a Plenary candidate
RADCOMP cardiac follow-up (longer-term)	NRG / Penn	First large RCT proton-vs-photon in breast; payer-coverage implications
PROTECT	RTOG-F / international	Proton-vs-photon esophageal — esophageal proton policy event if positive
NRG-GU005 long-term	NRG	5-fx prostate SBRT vs moderate hypofx — 5-yr update post 2-yr positive QoL at ASTRO 2025
SABR-COMET-10	Canadian / international	OS readout in 4–10 oligomet — extends SABR-COMET paradigm
TORPEdO long-term	CRUK	H&N proton — 2025 Plenary phase 3 readout; longer-term + subgroup
FAST-02	Cincinnati / Varian	Expanded FLASH-RT first-in-human bone mets — class-defining for FLASH if positive
PACIFIC-9 / successor	AZ / cooperative	First PACIFIC successor in stage III NSCLC since 2017
NRG-CC008 / hippocampal-sparing	NRG	Cognitive endpoint in brain mets — extends NRG-CC001

Discussant watch list: ASTRO Plenary discussants are typically named at slate announcement. Track on the Scientific Program page. Discussants come from the relevant disease-site committee; identity is itself a signal.

All pre-embargo candidates above are reconstructed from cooperative-group quarterly calendars + sponsor press releases + "Predict the Plenary"–style previews (radiationeconomics.substack.com does this annually). To be reconciled with the actual Plenary slate when announced.

Track shortlist — most-loaded tracks¶

ASTRO 2026 will run ~2,500 abstracts across proffered papers, posters, and digital posters. The following tracks are expected to dominate by volume and discussant attention:

GU Oncology (largest single-disease track)¶

Prostate: NRG-GU005 long-term; STAMPEDE-2 RT arm; PSMA-directed re-irradiation; oligo-progression SBRT/SABR; brachytherapy + EBRT (ASCENDE-RT 10-yr); post-prostatectomy POSTILV / SAKK; HYPRO long-term hypofractionation.
Bladder: BART follow-up (post-op RT after radical cystectomy); bladder-preservation chemo-RT update.
GYN: Brachytherapy outcomes (CC + EBRT), interstitial implants; vaginal-cuff hypofractionation.

Lung¶

Early-stage NSCLC SBRT: RTOG-F successor to 0813 / 0915 fractionation studies; pre-op SBRT + IO neoadjuvant; SBRT-vs-surgery (STARS / ROSEL-type designs).
Locally advanced NSCLC: PACIFIC-9 / successor (chemo-RT + durva + add-on); proton thoracic (RADCOMP / PROTECT-NSCLC analogue).
SCLC: NRG-LU007 TRT fractionation; cross-link to ASCO 2026 TRIPLEX LBA8005 + ESMO 2026 SCLC slate.

Breast¶

Partial-breast accelerated (APBI): FAST-FORWARD partial-breast update.
Regional-nodal hypofractionation: RT CHARM follow-up.
Skip-RT after neoadjuvant pCR: NSABP B-51 / NRG-RT-005 — major SABCS 2026 dual-presenter candidate.
Proton breast: RADCOMP cardiac follow-up Plenary candidate.
Single-fx WBI: EMPOWER or analogue.

CNS / Brain mets¶

SRS fractionation, post-op cavity SRS, leptomeningeal: NRG-CC008 hippocampal-sparing + memantine vs SRS for >10 mets.
Pediatric proton CSI long-term: registry / cooperative-group readouts.
Recurrent glioma re-irradiation: registry data + early-phase.

GI¶

Pancreatic SBRT (MR-linac adaptive): ARTNET consortium readouts; LAP07 / Alliance follow-up.
Anal canal de-escalation: PLATO follow-up.
Rectal TNT non-operative: OPRA / RAPIDO long-term.
Esophageal proton: PROTECT.

Head & Neck¶

HPV+ de-escalation: NRG-HN005 follow-up, MC1675 / MC1273.
Proton H&N: TORPEdO long-term + subgroup.
Re-irradiation registry: multi-institution data.

Heme¶

Hodgkin / MALT / orbital / CNS lymphoma: field-size and dose-de-escalation.
CAR-T bridging RT: small registries / cooperative reports.

Technology / Physics — the AI-tools secondary track¶

MR-linac adaptive (Unity / MRIdian): ARTNET + vendor consortium readouts. Online-adaptive workflow validation.
FLASH-RT: FAST-02 expansion; preclinical-to-clinical translation. Vendor-led (IntraOp, Varian FLASHforward, Mevion).
Proton arc therapy: early clinical implementation.
Carbon-ion: NIRS / Heidelberg / Shanghai outcomes; emerging US sites.
AI in treatment planning / contouring: auto-contouring validation (Limbus AI, MIM, Siemens AI-Rad Companion); synthetic-CT for MR-only workflows; dose-prediction CNNs / KBP automation; Varian Ethos Intelligent Optimization; Elekta Unity online-adaptive ML.

Immuno-RT¶

RT + IO mechanism + early-phase trials (NRG-LU007, FORCE, WITH-RT analogues); abscopal-effect biomarkers; cross-link to AACR 2026 radiation-immunology mechanism sessions.

AI-tools secondary track — cross-link strategy¶

ASTRO has a meaningful AI-in-planning track (~50–150 abstracts annually) but the meeting is fundamentally clinical. The strategy for this vault:

Inside each trial page, log named AI tools in the ## Radiation specifics → AI tooling used field and link out to the appropriate RSNA 2026 / MICCAI 2026 tool dossier. Don't duplicate the dossier.
In trials/index.md, the AI-tools cross-link table aggregates which tools appear in which trials.
If volume warrants (>10 standalone tool entries post-meeting), promote to a tools/index.md directory and follow the RSNA per-tool template.

Key cross-link targets at the methods / imaging-FM siblings:

Tool family	Where the dossier lives
Auto-contouring (OARs, target volumes)	MICCAI 2026 tools (methods) + RSNA 2026 tools (clinical-deployment)
Synthetic-CT (MR-only workflows)	MICCAI 2026 tools (GANs / diffusion methods)
Dose-prediction CNNs / KBP	MICCAI 2026 tools
Vendor adaptive workflows (Ethos, Unity)	JPM 2026 (commercial / financial layer) + here when trial-named
Pathology / radiology FMs adapted for contouring	AACR 2026 bioinfo-tools + RSNA 2026 tools

Cooperative-group calendar (for trial-shortlist tracking)¶

ASTRO trials disproportionately originate from cooperative groups. Track these public calendars for what's reading out at ASTRO 2026:

NRG Oncology — quarterly investigator calls; published trial pipeline at nrgoncology.org. NRG-led trials at ASTRO usually preview ~3 months pre-meeting.
RTOG Foundation — pipeline page; works closely with NRG and industry partners.
EORTC Radiation Oncology Group — European cooperative; some trials dual-present at ASTRO + ESMO.
CCTG (Canadian) — SABR-COMET lineage origins.
CRUK — UK trials (TORPEdO, FAST-FORWARD lineage).
SAKK (Swiss), SWOG, Alliance, ECOG-ACRIN — site-specific cooperative groups whose RT-arm trials surface at ASTRO.
NCI-CTEP — multi-institutional NCI-funded studies (esp. immuno-RT / mechanism).

Vendor / commercial watch list¶

The Exhibit Hall (Sun–Tue) is where the technology-side narrative compounds. Vendors with significant ASTRO 2026 announcement potential:

Vendor	Product line	What to watch
Elekta	Unity MR-linac, Versa HD, Esprit Gamma Knife	Online-adaptive ML, new clinical sites, Unity outcomes data
Varian / Siemens Healthineers	TrueBeam, Edge, Ethos, ProBeam (proton), Hyper Sight CBCT, FLASHforward	Ethos adaptive workflow expansion, FLASH research roadmap, AI-Rad Companion integration
ViewRay	MRIdian MR-linac	Post-restructuring product cadence (track for clinical-trial readouts)
RaySearch Laboratories	RayStation TPS	Auto-contouring, adaptive replanning, proton arc planning
MIM Software / Limbus AI / Mirada / TheraPanacea	Auto-contouring + workflow AI	New OAR / GTV models, registry-validation data
IBA	ProteusONE / ProteusPlus (proton), dosimetry	Compact-proton site expansion, FLASH-proton
Mevion	Compact proton (single-room)	Hyperscan pencil-beam updates
Avo / IntraOp	FLASH electron (Mobetron-based)	FAST-02 / preclinical-to-clinical updates
Hitachi / Toshiba (carbon-ion)	Carbon-ion therapy systems	US site announcements (Mayo, others)
Microsoft / Google / NVIDIA (compute partners)	AI infrastructure for adaptive RT	Cross-link to JPM 2026 and to RSNA 2026 AI-Showcase

Cross-link product-cycle announcements to JPM 2026 entries where the vendor presented in January.

Pre-meeting build plan¶

Now (May 11, 2026, T-4.5 months): vault scaffolded (index.md, trials/index.md, this file). Per-trial shortlist seeded from cooperative-group calendars + 2025-carryover topline candidates.
May 14 (acceptance notifications): trial-acceptance status starts to leak via investigators / institution press; update shortlist as items confirm.
Summer (program goes live): populate stub pages for confirmed Plenary slate + top 10 LBA candidates. Fill modality / dose / fractionation fields from abstract titles.
~6 weeks pre-meeting (mid-August): Plenary slate announced; pre-build full stub pages with discussant placeholders.
~3 weeks pre-meeting (early September): ASTRO Press Kit drops; "Predict the Plenary" Substack post lands; embargoed media briefings populate the shortlist. Trade-press preview pieces (OncLive, Cancer Letter, Targeted Oncology) provide additional context.
Live meeting (Sep 26–30): real-time capture per-trial. Plenary day (likely Tue Sep 29) is high-priority.
Post-meeting (Oct 2026): finalize trial corpus. Run the systemic-arm / radiation-arm matched-pair audit vs ASCO 2026 + ESMO 2026 (same disease, same line — what the systemic-therapy people decided vs what the radiation people decided).