Key Points
- The 15th ISRS Congress was held June 19–23, 2022 in Milan.
- More than 700 attendees from over 50 countries listened to presentations from 209 speakers.
The 15th International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS) Congress was held June 19–23, 2022 in Milan, Italy. More than 700 attendees from over 55 countries listened to presentations from 209 speakers. There were also 18 exhibitors and 7 industry symposia.
Congress President, Laura Fariselli, shared that the meeting was a success and included wonderful peer-to-peer interaction, high-level scientific and clinical content, lively exhibit floor and industry interaction, and a multitude of social activities. The Congress’s online photo gallery truly captures the interactive nature of the meeting.
A plenary session by Prof. Filippo De Braud from Italy was titled, “The Philosophy of Immunotherapy,” and its 31-minute-long recording is available on the ISRS website. Another plenary session, “Special Topics: SRS, HIFU, LITT, RF ablation: alternatives or complementary tools,” included an opening lecture by Francesco Prada, MD, on focused ultrasound for brain diseases.
Beyond the plenary sessions, the congress included lectures on the use of focused ultrasound for different clinical applications, as well as a debate between clinical experts regarding ablative procedures for movement disorders. The debate, “Stereotactic Radiosurgery versus High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for Tremor” featured Jean Regis, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery at the Aix Marseille University (Marseille, France), and Neurosurgeon at the Timone University Hospital making the case for Gamma Knife and Andres Lozano, MD, PhD, FRCSC, BMedSci, from the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center providing key points on HIFU.
“It has been really interesting to present focused ultrasound technology in a venue where the main topic is based on a different source: lots of parallelism, lots of synergies,” said Dr. Prada.
The scientific sessions, which included oral presentations, abstracts, and posters, are available online to registered attendees.
The Foundation also hosted a luncheon seminar, “Current Applications of focused Ultrasound in the Brain,” to highlight the technology’s main clinical applications, microbubble-mediated ultrasound therapies, and the advanced imaging modalities that are being used to guide and monitor focused ultrasound treatment. This event was well attended, with about 70 participants. The Foundation’s Ambassador in Europe, Thomas Andreae, PhD, opened the seminar with an introduction about the Foundation and then shared the latest advances in using focused ultrasound for epilepsy and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Prada presented the content on microbubble-mediated ultrasound therapies, and Mario Stanziano, MD, a neuroradiologist at the IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta Foundation in Milan presented the content on imaging for focused ultrasound treatments for tremor.
The International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS) was founded as an international, non-profit organization in 1991 and is dedicated to advancing the field of stereotactic radiosurgery through research, education, and multidisciplinary collaboration. It is the largest organization of its kind with over 800 members from more than 60 countries.