Event Details

The August issue of JVIR is well worth perusing for both beginning and experienced interventional oncologists. Ryan Hickey’s primers on Cancer Concepts and Principles provide a thorough introductory background for IR Fellows and early practitioners. Busy practitioners will appreciate the state-of-the-art summaries of common clinical practices such as lung and kidney ablation by Damian Dupuy and Deb Gervais, and embolotherapy of a variety of hepatic malignancies. Chuck Ray did a particular good job making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear by combining several retrospective series into a meta-analysis of intra-arterial therapy for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. 

There is plenty for geeks like me interested in basic and translational science as well. It is critical for interventional oncologists to stay up to date in medical oncology and cancer biology, in order to maintain credibility and respect at tumor boards. There is a nice summary of molecular and genomic profiling of cancers, in which biopsy plays an increasing important role not just making a diagnosis, but guiding therapy. More and more I am doing core biopsies in patients with a known diagnosis in order to obtain additional cell-level data to plan or monitor novel drug or biological therapies.

Integration of IO with systemic and radiation therapies can achieve synergies greater than the sum of the parts. Articles on combining ablation with immunotherapy, embolization and antiproliferative drugs, local delivery of oncolytic viruses, and barriers to drug delivery highlight many potential new avenues to increase the impact of image-guided therapies. 

There is something for everyone practicing IO in this issue. I highly recommend it.