Five years ago, our CIRSE delegation fit around one table. This year it did not.
The CASCINATION team was between 20 and 25 people in Copenhagen earlier this month for the annual CIRSE congress. This is a far cry from CIRSE events as little as 5 years ago, where we were 5 or 6 people. This congress has also grown to consistently over 7,000 physician attendees. This is expected as minimally invasive therapies in IR continue to grow with evidence and guidelines evolutions, as well as with technological advancements.
To start with a few of the the scientific highlights: ablation was many times on the main podiums. We found a few particularly interesting. First, "An update in RCC ablation Evidence" from Ole Graumann (DK). We see CAS-One IR use in the kidney grow significantly in the past few years - the evolution of evidence is partly responsible for this. Next, Hester Scheffer gave an excellent background in both basic and emerging ablative therapies, and Madelon Dijkstra gave an update on the AmCORE registry, which focuses on 3-5cm tumors, as opposed to those 3cm and smaller where historically, the research has focused.
AI again is featured in SPHAIRE - Segmentations, margin assessments and more. The field continues to evolve. Marco van Strijen also highlighted CAS-One IR in his AI in IR presentation.
Perhaps the crowd favorite was Martijn Meijerink and Asmund Fretland again (for the 17th time) debating ablation vs resection. We have our opinion on who "won" but encourage everyone to make their own decisions. This topic should be the one to go back and watch online. Also in this arena was a debate on the new modality in the space, histotripsy.
Finally, on the final day, the margin assessment topics were on stage, with Ornella Moschovaki-Zeiger, Marco Calandri, Bruno Odisio, and Ed Johnston continuing to draw important attention to this matter, and they have our thanks for it.
Last and not least, our Quality Ablation Evening on the Monday again raised the bar from last year's event in Barcelona. Jonathan Kessler (US) and Shaheen Noorani (UK) delivered fantastic presentations on how CAS-One IR has significantly changed tumor ablation in their hospitals.
Thanks to the 300+ who attended!
And a reminder to all, especially those waiting in line - make sure to get there early next year in Milan!
