ESTRO 2026
Stockholm, Sweden | 15–19 May 2026

This report brings together highlights from ESTRO 2026, presented under the theme "Innovating Radiation Oncology, Together." It compiles contributions from the Society's focus groups, tracks and committees, alongside this year's award-winning research, offering an overview of the scientific discussions and outcomes from the congress.
 

 

1. Breast
   Highlights on breast cancer
   By Lisa Ciaptacz
    
2. CNS
   ESTRO: A growing platform for neuro-radiation oncology
   By Raphael Bodensohn
    
3. Gastrointestinal
   Lower GI
   Lower GI in motion
   By Letizia Deantonio

Upper GI
Radiation Oncology in upper GI Cancers
By Thomas Brunner, Francesco Cellini, Peter van Rossum, Tiuri Kroese, Eleni Gkika, Marcel Verheij, Eva Versteijne, Paul Rogowski, Siyer Roohani, Florence Huguet

4. Gynaecological
   Emerging Radiotherapy Strategies in Gynaecological Malignancies
   By Bianca Santo and Donato Pezzulla
    
5. Hyperthermia
   Hyperthermia in modern radiation oncology: clinical evidence, biological diversity, technical innovation, and multi-centre harmonisation
   By Anton Rink
    
6. Lung
   Highlights in Lung Cancer
   By Valeria Dionisi and Kim Rosalie Kampen
    
7. Oligometastatic disease
   Prostate, gynae and lung
   By Melek Tugce Yilmaz Aslan

Optimising oligometastatic disease management with circulating tumour DNA
By Oded Icht

Highlights of Studies on Oligometastatic Disease
By Nicolas Martz

8. Positioning and Immobilisation
   Positioning and Immobilisation Journey
   By Ghizela Ana Maria Salagean, Siret Kivistik, Mirjam Mast and Prakash Umbarkar
    
9. SBRT
   Highlights on Renal Cell Carcinoma Sessions
   By Harley Stephens
    
10. Skin and soft tissue
    Advances in Skin Cancer and Soft-tissue Sarcoma Treatment - Insights from ESTRO 2026
    By Romaana Mir and Siyer Roohani
     
11. Systemic therapy and RT
    SFRT on the Rise
    By Dora Correia and Verdiana Trappetti
     
12. Urology
    Urology highlights
    By Thomas Zilli, Paul Sargos, Monica Buijs, Giulio Francolini and Simon Spohn

 

 

1. Brachytherapy
   Is There a Place for Interventional Radiotherapy (Brachytherapy) in Prostate Cancer?
   By Hathal Haddad
    
2. Physics
   Direct Generation of VMAT Plans from Dose and Contours Using Deep Learning for Pancreatic Cancer
   By Zixu Guan

Status and practice of proton therapy for pregnant patients in Europe
By Maite Romero-Expósito

Real or fake? A quad-modal digital patient engine brings virtual clinical trials a step closer in radiation oncology
By Muheng Li

Dose Surface Mapping of the Pharyngeal Mucosa Reveals Subregions Associated with Feeding Tube Dependency During Radiotherapy: Results from the UPGRADE-RT Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial
By Sven Meijer

3. RTT
   Beyond Partnership: Advancing Patient Voice, Leadership, and Shared Decision-Making in Radiation Oncology
   By Claire Poole

The Role of Clinical Audits in Driving Performance in Radiotherapy
By Maeve Kearney

Online Adaptive Radiotherapy and RTT educational programmes - Debate
By Emma-Jane White

An RTT's View of ESTRO 2026: Innovation, Debates, and Swedish Fika
By Sarah Fortin Jørgensen

4. Radiobiology
   Systemic responses to radiotherapy: from idea to implementation
   By Heidi Lyng

Improving Re-Irradiation Outcomes: A Lively Debate at ESTRO
By Monica Mangoni

ESTRO meets MELODI: Immune consequences of radiation exposure
By Serge Candéias, Katalin Lumniczky and Anna Dubrovska

5. Early Career
   Bridging Worlds: Telemedicine for Global Cancer Care
   By Federico Mastroleo and Laia Humbert-Vidan
    
6. ROSQ (Radiation Oncology Safety and Quality)
   The role of clinical audits in driving performance in radiotherapy
   By Aileen Flavin

NB: The clinical track is covered in the previous section, within the various reports of the focus groups section.
 

Best Papers

1. Brachytherapy
   Can partial-breast irradiation be delivered in a single fraction? 10-year results of the SiFEBI phase II prospective trial
   By Laura Haas
    
2. Interdisciplinary
   Bridging the Artificial Intelligence Readiness Gap: Quantifying Workforce Literacy in Radiation Oncology
   By Ciaran Malone
    
3. Physics
   Advancing synthetic CT in radiotherapy: insights from the SynthRAD2025 Grand Challenge
   By Matteo Maspero
    

Journal Awards

1. CtRO Young Researcher Award
   Long-term results of radiation therapy de-escalation in cT1-2N1 breast cancer after primary systemic treatment
   By Fleur Mauritz
    
2. PhiRO Young Researcher Award
   A superconducting electron accelerator irradiation system with 1-30 MeV beam energy and widely tunable dose rates, for FLASH-RT biological and preclinical research
   By Jianhan Sun
    
3. TipsRO Young Researcher Award
   Impact of breath-hold home training on spirometry-based DIBH eligibility in left-breast radiotherapy: Results from a single-arm prospective study
   By Muhammad Fairuz Bin Jum'ee
    

Company Awards

1. ESTRO-ELEKTA Brachytherapy Award
   Very accelerated partial-breast irradiation: a step forward in breast cancer radiotherapy
   By Jean-Michel Hannoun-Levi
    
2. GEC-ESTRO Best Junior Presentation
   Anal Canal Carcinoma: Which Patients Still Benefit From an Interstitial Brachytherapy Boost — And Is HDR the New Standard?
   By Grégoire Laurent Delanghe

 

 

In addition to the written reports above, a series of interviews was recorded on site in Stockholm, featuring abstract presenters and leading voices from across the congress. These recordings are available for viewing below.

Optimizing oligometastatic disease management with circulating tumour DNA: a correlative analysis from the phase II randomized EXTEND trial
Presenter: Alexander D Sherry, USA
> Watch the video

Final Results of the TROG 15.03 FASTRACK II Clinical Trial: Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR) for Primary Kidney Cancer
Presenter: Shankar Siva, Australia
> Watch the video

Geographic accessibility of proton therapy services in Europe
Presenter: Dominik Wawrzuta, Poland
Proton therapy for pregnant patients in Europe
Presenter: Maite Romero-Expósito, Sweden 
> Watch the video

Impact of AI-Avatar Based Digital Patient Engagement on Treatment Understanding, Empowerment and Stress in a US Community Radiation Oncology Practice
Presenter: Adam Raben, USA
> Watch the video

Metastases-directed treatment in Patients with Oligometastatic Breast Cancer: Results from the OLIGOMA-trial ARO-2021-09
Presenter: David Krug, Germany
> Watch the video

HERMES: 2-year outcomes of a randomised phase II trial of 2-fraction and 5-fraction MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy for prostate cancer
Presenter: Sian Cooper, UK
> Watch the video

HERMES: 2-year outcomes of a randomised phase II trial of 2-fraction and 5-fraction MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy for prostate cancer
Presenter: Sian Cooper, UK
> Watch the video

Interview with the 2026 ESTRO Honorary Member Awardees
Laura Dawson, University of Toronto, Canada I David Palma, Western University, Canada
> Watch the video

Interview with Neha Vapiwala
President of ASTRO (American Society for Radiation Oncology)
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
> Watch the video

Interview with Supriya Chopra
Research Committee Chair of FARO (Federation of Asian Organizations for Radiation Oncology)
Chair-elect Gynaecology GEC-ESTRO 
Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India
> Watch the video

Interview with Alina Strudza
Recipient of the Emmanuel van der Schueren Award
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
> Watch the video

Interview with Daniel Zips
Recipient of the Regaud Award
Charité, Berlin, Germany
> Watch the video

Interview with Cancer Patients Europe
Antonella Cardone, CEO  Cancer Patients Europe
Merel Hennink, Secretary of Board Cancer Patients Europe
> Watch the video

Interview with Azadeh Abravan
Chair of the ESTRO Early Career Committee
University of Edinburgh, UK
> Watch the video

Interview with Luca Boldrini
Chair of the ESTRO Education Council
Fondazione Policlinico Universitario
“A. Gemelli” IRCCS of Rome, Italy
> Watch the video

 

Acknowledgements

We extend our sincere thanks to the authors, Focus Groups, and Committees whose contributions made this report possible. Their dedication to capturing and sharing the scientific highlights of ESTRO 2026 is greatly appreciated.

This report was compiled by the ESTRO Communications team. For corrections or additions, please contact chardon@estro.org.