Results of the Third International Forum of Oncology and Radiology

The Third International Forum of Oncology and Radiology, which was held in Moscow from September 21 to 25, 2020, summed up the results of the five-day work.

The forum program was as intense as ever. 650 speakers from 21 countries of the near and far abroad were involved in the Forum: Austria, Israel, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, England, Serbia, the Netherlands, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova. 776 reports were presented, and the number of participants exceeded the record mark of 7,000 people. The Forum was highly appreciated by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation M.A. Murashko and the entire professional community.

It should be recalled that in his welcoming address to the forum participants, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the oncology service “adequately copes with new challenges, maintains its effectiveness” and stressed the special significance of the event.

During the forum, more than 30 thematic congresses and symposiums were held, including the First All-Russian Oncological and Urological School, the ESTRO School, the II Congress “The Present and Prospects of Russian Oncohematology”, the Day of the Young Oncologist, the ENDOONCO Congress, the Cancer Registry School, surgical and endoscopic master classes, which included 14 operations, the plenum of the Board of the Association Oncologists of Russia, the anniversary session of the Association of Directors of Institutes of Oncology and Radiology of the CIS and Eurasia, and much more.

The forum participants, who received round-the-clock access to all materials of the scientific program, especially emphasized its informative value and relevance. As part of the event, reports were presented not only on the practical achievements of Russian and foreign colleagues, but also innovative solutions in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. For example, the use of artificial intelligence in mammology, which brings the quality of diagnostics and the management of the screening organization to a new effective level. The program developed on the basis of neural networks for breast cancer screening itself develops an algorithm for selecting the area of interest, focuses the doctor’s attention on the pathology area, which not only speeds up the research process, but also clarifies the diagnosis itself.

Another new direction in diagnostics is radiogenomics, an interdisciplinary field that combines the capabilities of digital radiology and systems biology technologies, allowing to determine the molecular subtype of breast cancer at the diagnostic stage using a complex of medical image features with an accuracy of up to 70 percent. Meanwhile, at the Congress of molecular diagnostics, immunodiagnostics and immunotherapy, the prospects of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer were discussed. According to Russian scientists, the use of molecular diagnostics will already dramatically improve the situation for patients who are practically hopeless from the point of view of classical oncology. Through immunotherapeutic effects, including fairly simple to implement and, very importantly, safe for health, adoptive immunotherapy, doctors have learned through the immune system to manage the tumor in favor of the patient, calling this method cancer immunoredaction. According to experts, it is possible soon, and the prerequisites for this already exist, using immuno-biological markers and influencing all parts of the immune system, including humoral immunity, specialists will be able to apply the method of immunoprophylaxis to prevent cancer. The importance of diagnostic aspects and the need to centralize research and create a single referral center in the field of immunological diagnosis of tumors of the lymphoid and hematopoietic system were discussed at the II Congress “The Present and prospects of Russian oncohematology”. The issues of stem cell transplantation, as the most important option for the treatment of oncohematological patients, and the problems of the national register of bone marrow donors were discussed here.

Following the results of the forum, a resolution will be prepared, including the main issues and proposals of the professional community. The Organizing Committee of the forum thanks the speakers and listeners, organizers and partners for their active participation in the work of the Third International Forum of Oncology and Radiology. See you soon!

Press Service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia