Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology: Report from the Ninth Annual Meeting (2022)
The Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology (SPRO) is an international group of clinicians whose primary aim is to advance the field of palliative radiation oncology by promoting evidence-based palliative radiation therapy and excellence in primary palliative care through research, education, collaboration, and patient advocacy (1). SPRO held its 9th Annual Meeting on October 23, 2022 in association with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 64th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas (Figure 1). Dr. Candice Johnstone, the current SPRO President, welcomed attendees at the meeting start. Brief introductions then followed from the clinicians in attendance from countries including Canada, Germany, and the United States. Dr. Johnstone provided an update of SPRO’s efforts since the 8th Annual Meeting (2) and a summary of the non-profit’s finances. Dr. Emily Martin, current Vice President, provided updates regarding SPRO’s membership, core committees, and website. Dr. Johnstone announced SPRO’s newly appointed and incoming Vice President (Dr. Sara Alcorn), Secretary (Dr. Andrew Bruggeman), and Treasurer (Dr. Eric Chang). Dr. Emily Martin and Dr. Candice Johnstone will transition into their new roles as President and Immediate Past-President, respectively. Changes to the Executive Committee will become official on January 1, 2023.
Dr. Charles B. Simone II, the current Editor-in Chief of Annals of Palliative Medicine (APM), updated the attendees on the recent accomplishments of APM. Since the Journal’s inception in 2012, it has become indexed in PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and SCIE (3). The Journal continues to increase its notoriety each year, with a latest impact factor for the 2021 citation year of 1.925. APM, which is the official journal of SPRO, features a standing Palliative Radiotherapy Column, which is co-edited by Drs. Edward Chow and Candice Johnstone.
Dr. Candice Johnstone then presented Dr. Jordan Hill with the Rising Star Award (Figure 2). This award is bestowed upon an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of palliative radiation oncology at an early stage of their career. Dr. Alysa Fairchild nominated Dr. Hill in recognition of his dedication and scholarship in the field of palliative radiation oncology and his active engagement as part of the SPRO executive committee. He was nominated for and serves as a resident member of the SPRO executive committee and is actively involved in SPROs committee work. He has three first-author and one second author publications in palliative radiation therapy with 10 others in various stages of preparation for publication. He has been the recipient of multiple awards and scholarships including Best Oral Poster Presentation at the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) Annual Meeting Resident Competition in 2021 as well as the CARO Pamela Catton Scholarship. He genuinely cares for his patients and their families and helps optimize community supports. He is known for the way he develops rapport with patients and their families, his advocacy on behalf of his patients and his collaborative abilities. Dr. Hill exemplifies the attributes of the SPRO Rising Star.
Dr. Candice Johnstone then presented Dr. Dirk Rades with the Lifetime Achievement Award (Figure 3 and Table 1). This award is given to an individual who has made transformative contributions to the field of palliative radiotherapy over their illustrious career. Dr. Dirk Rades graduated in Medicine from the University of Hamburg in 1997. After his formal residency in Internal Medicine and Radiology, he started his residency training in Radiation Oncology at Hannover Medical University. Following his board certification in Radiation Oncology, he was appointed Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2004 and Full Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2008 at the University of Hamburg. He then moved to the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein of Lubeck and was appointed Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology in 2010. Dr. Rades received his Board Certification in Palliative Medicine in 2006, and in 2007 became the Chairman of the Palliative Radiotherapy Group of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO). Dr. Rades is a reviewer of more than 20 journals and has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed articles, including in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. Dr. Rades has been an invited speaker at multiple national and international meetings including those sponsored by the following professional societies: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the ASTRO, the European Cancer Organization (ECCO) , the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), and the SPRO. His primary areas of research are palliative radiotherapy, rare brain tumors, and head-and-neck cancers. He is perhaps best known for his work regarding the use of radiotherapy for bone metastases and spinal cord compression. Dr. Rades is the fifth recipient of SPRO’s most prestigious award.
Table 1
| 2022 Awards | Recipients |
|---|---|
| Rising Star Award | Dr. Jordan Hill, MD |
| Lifetime Achievement Award | Dr. Dirk Rades, MD |
As part of accepting this award, Dr. Dirk Rades gave an invited lecture on the role of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in the oligometastatic disease state. He started his presentation by defining the oligometastatic state and highlighting literature that demonstrates the favorable prognosis of patients with oligometastatic disease compared with widespread metastatic disease, regardless of tumor site. His presentation summarized the seminal trials for the role of SBRT in five different areas, including metastases of the brain, liver, lung, adrenal gland, and spine. He also provided updated, though preliminary, results of his RAMSES-01 trial, which is a phase 2 study of patients with metastatic spinal cord compression and favorable prognoses treated with 2.33 Gy ×18 fractions or 2.63 Gy ×15 fractions using a volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) technique. He concluded his talk by highlighting future research endeavors that may further improve outcomes in the oligometastatic disease state, including the combination of SBRT with immunotherapy.
The SPRO Annual Meeting then concluded with the reminder that nominations for next year’s Lifetime Service and Rising Star Award would be initiated in the coming months and announced at next year’s Annual Meeting in the fall of 2023.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://apm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/apm-22-1430/coif). CJ was the unpaid Immediate Past President of the Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology and serves as the Chair of Palliative Radiotherapy Subcommittee of Annals of Palliative Medicine from July 2021 to June 2023. EM is the current unpaid President of the Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology. YDT serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Annals of Palliative Medicine from February 2022 to January 2024. CBS 2nd serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Palliative Medicine. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- Wei R, Simone CB 2nd, Lutz S. Society for palliative radiation oncology: founding, vision, and report from the Second Annual Meeting. Ann Palliat Med 2016;5:74-5. [PubMed]
- Hill J, Johnstone C, Martin E, et al. Society for palliative radiation oncology: report from the Eighth Annual Meeting (2021). Ann Palliat Med 2021;10:13030-4. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Simone CB 2nd. Annals of Palliative Medicine is now indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). Ann Palliat Med 2019;8:102-3. [Crossref] [PubMed]
