Assessment of Radiation Oncology Participation in Interdisciplinary Education at the ASCO Annual Meeting, and Pathways to Expand Involvement

<h2>ABSTRACT</h2><h3>Background</h3> Integration of radiation oncology (RO) content into the educational offerings of other cancer specialty societies may improve utilization of radiation therapy in guidelines-concordant care. However, minimal data describes the extent to which this occurs. This retrospective study assessed RO participation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting education sessions. <h3>Methods</h3> The 2021-2024 ASCO annual meeting program guides were used to collect speaker names and specialties for all "Educational" and "Case-Based Panel" session types. The annual meeting education committee rosters from these same years were used to collect the names and specialties of committee members and leaders for each track, in order to determine if RO committee membership was associated with RO participation as a speaker in an education session. <h3>Results</h3> 20% (n=85/423) of education sessions included a RO speaker or moderator, comprising 6% of 1,419 total speakers. RO participation was more common for Case-Based Panel sessions (n=32/86, 37%) than Educational sessions (n=53/337, 16%). There was a decline in RO participation in Educational sessions from 22% in 2021 to 10% in 2024 (<i>p</i><0.0001), though RO participation in Case-Based Panel sessions was stable over time (<i>p</i>=0.62). 35% (n=30/85) of committee track-years included a RO committee member, and 7 (8%) included an RO track leader. 10% (n=39/411) of total committee members were radiation oncologists. 60% (n=51/85) of the annual meeting sessions that included an RO speaker occurred for tracks with an RO education committee member. RO committee presence strongly correlated with RO speaker participation (odds ratio=49.0, <i>p</i><0.0001). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Radiation oncologists are uncommon speakers in ASCO annual meeting sessions and have low and declining rates of involvement in planning committees. Volunteering to participate in planning committees, and submitting case-based panel proposals, may be reasonable approaches for radiation oncologists increase involvement and improve interdisciplinary education among oncologists in other specialties.