Key Points
- The 35th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO) was held September 26–29, 2023, in Cologne, Germany.
- Most of the content from this conference will be of interest to the focused ultrasound community. Search the meeting program using the link below.
The 35th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO) was held September 26–29, 2023, in Cologne, Germany. With approximately 150 attendees, ESHO 2023 was wonderfully organized by Prof. Holger Grüll, PhD, professor of radiology and chair of Experimental Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy at University Hospital of Cologne.
Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s Director of Clinical Relationships, attended the meeting and presented a keynote talk on the current state-of-the-art for clinical adoption of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).
“The keynote speakers and other presenters enlightened me on the clinical benefits of using hyperthermia in conjunction with other treatment regimens for a variety of oncologic applications,” said Dr. LeBlang. “There are potential advantages in using noninvasive HIFU to induce hyperthermia instead of other more invasive hyperthermic devices.”
Tuesday, September 26
An MR-HIFU workshop was held at University Hospital of Cologne. It featured three expert presentations followed by a hands-on laboratory tour. During the tour, attendees prepared samples, performed a thermal MR-HIFU treatment on the samples, and then retrieved the samples to examine the effect of HIFU on tissue.
Wednesday, September 27
Wednesday’s program included a three-part workshop on hyperthermia, three keynote lectures on “Crossing Borders in Multi-Disciplinary Cancer Treatment,” the first poster session, and a social.
Thursday, September 28
The day kicked off with a keynote lecture then went into scientific sessions. A roundtable featured a debate on HIFU versus radiofrequency ablation. The second poster session wrapped up the day. The scientific session topics were thermal ablation, technology development in hyperthermia, clinical applications and clinical trials, and quality assurance/image guidance/thermometry/treatment planning. There was another social event in the evening.
Friday, September 29
Three keynote lectures and three scientific sessions were accompanied by the third poster session (including the award for best poster) and an awards ceremony. The scientific session topics were bioeffects/immuno-response/basic research, hyperthermia drug delivery/nanoparticles/emerging applications, and clinical applications/clinical trials.
Most of the content from this conference will be of interest to the focused ultrasound community. Search the meeting program by using the link below (suggested key words: HIFU, ultrasound, histotripsy, immunotherapy, specific indications or cancers).