Course Report

Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer

16-19 April 2023, Naples, Italy

PDF Version

 

Course director:

• Philip Poortmans, radiation oncologist, Iridium Netwerk & University of Antwerp, Belgium

This was the third time I had attended an ESTRO breast course over a 20-year working period. The current faculty is a superb mix of personalities that make the course a thoroughly enjoyable and clinically beneficial experience that I would say is appropriate for all levels of clinical expertise. The teachers are warm, personable, and really look as if they enjoy the course, and I felt that this permeated the audience. It was well worth the 24-hour flight time from Sydney, Australia.

The content is a good mix of practical and didactic lectures with plenty of time for questions. Attendees have the opportunity to present challenging cases for discussion. The practical evaluation of attendees’ ESTRO volumes via the use of the multifunctional platform for contouring and delineation known as FALCON is done in a non-judgmental manner and it is good to see the normal variation in clinical practice and the interpretation of these variations. The lecture content addresses many of the challenges of contemporary practice such as hypofractionation, the interaction of contemporary and emerging systemic therapies with radiotherapy, neoadjuvant systemic therapy and its impact on radiotherapy volume and dose considerations, and surgical considerations such as oncoplastic surgery or reconstruction. The expert breast surgeons among the faculty gave wonderful presentations on areas that we find so challenging in our multidisciplinary meetings.

The presentations regarding data from the early breast cancer triallists’ collaborative group, which were given from a clinician’s perspective by Dr David Dodwell, were excellent and entertaining. He made statistical interpretation understandable ‑ not an easy job! The presentations were succinct and mostly lasted for 15-30 minutes; they were multidisciplinary yet provided plenty of time for questions.

Day two in the afternoon brought a team-building exercise: a visit to Pompeii. Many took on Naples public transport with wonderful tips from Agnes to guide those from afar. The evening was spent at a Naples restaurant with excellent local food and drink on offer.

The day was also memorable as very enthusiastic local Naples football fans provided a spectacle of fireworks and loud chanting outside the hotel until 3-4 am; their aim was to put the Northern Milan opposing team, who coincidentally were staying in the adjacent hotel, off their game that was to be played the next day. It was certainly a remarkable 24 hours in which we experienced the unique and colourful local culture.

As a senior breast radiation oncologist, I find these intimate courses offer a way to check on my current practice, mingle with experts and bring back this expertise to my colleagues, both junior and senior. Most members of the faculty are international leaders in breast-cancer management and are very generous in offering advice in a pragmatic and “best evidence” way.

The current course is very multidisciplinary and covers a large amount of contemporary practice succinctly. It is a very valuable educational course that boosts quality assurance and that I would encourage my colleagues to attend.  

I would like to congratulate and thank the faculty for bringing this course to us every two years.

Associate Professor Susan Carroll
Radiation oncologist, senior staff specialist
Royal North Shore Hospital
Sydney, Australia
susan.carroll@health.nsw.gov.au