Interview with the Chair of the ESTRO 2025 Physics Track

Chair of the ESTRO 2025 Physics Track

Christian Richter, Chair of the ESTRO 2025 Physics Track. As a leading expert in radiation oncology physics, he is based at OncoRay – National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology in Dresden, Germany. In this interview, Christian Richter discusses the highlights of the Physics Track at ESTRO 2025 and what attendees can look forward to.

1. What themes or challenges are dominating the physics abstracts this year?

There has been a jump in the number of abstracts on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in all fields of medical physics, from classical autosegmentation through dose prediction and automated planning to toxicity and outcome prediction. Although we saw this trend in previous years, this year quality assurance, uncertainty, explainability and transferability of AI approaches are moving into the spotlight! Also, online adaptive radiotherapy is strongly present, not only for MR-Linacs but also for cone-beam CT-equipped Linacs, and particle therapy is becoming more online adaptive. Last but not least, the field of quality assurance adds to the transformative innovations at ESTRO 2025 – nicely highlighted in the title of one of our sessions, “The impact of not knowing what you don't know”.

2. Are there specific areas where international collaborations are making a noticeable impact?

Definitely - and the physics programme reflects this on many levels. First, as we aim for further increase of quality and standardisation, there are several high-scoring multi-centre comparisons and audits in the programme, which we highlight in a dedicated proffered papers session. Second, in translational efforts to implement new technology that includes more efficient workflows, some outstanding collaborations among industry, clinics and academia should make a difference in the long term. And third, there are several ESTRO initiatives that by definition are international collaborations, in which we see more and more top-level outcomes in our annual conference. Along the same lines, the cross-link with our physics workshop is extremely strong; the workshop outcomes that have been produced after the workshops feed back into our physics track for many different topics – from upright patient positioning to dose accumulation and re-irradiation.

3. From this year’s abstracts, can you share any standout advancements or innovations in medical physics that will be showcased?

This is a difficult question – not because it’s hard to find great achievements, but the opposite! The programme is full of outstanding innovations. We had so many first-in-human applications in the physics track that they were upgraded to be discussed in a dedicated session in the interdisciplinary track. From mainstream topics such as autosegmentation, online adaptive radiotherapy and toxicity prediction to very specialised topics such as arrhythmia radioablation and non-conventional beam modalities, the programme is full of innovations and it would be unfair to pick just one or two.

4. What unique opportunities does the physics track offer to medical physicists at ESTRO 2025?

I could give a three-page answer, but I can make it very short: the ESTRO congress is THE conference to go to, because medical physics is neither isolated in its own discipline, nor is it in the shadow of another discipline. At its heart, ESTRO is truly interdisciplinary and this is necessary to make a relevant impact in many ways: to translate new approaches into the clinic, to increase together the applications of radiation therapy in an evolving oncologic arena, and even to achieve transformative innovation through collaboration. None of this is possible without medical physics, neither is it possible for medical physics alone!

5. How will the physics track at ESTRO 2025 explore AI’s role in MRI-guided radiotherapy, AI guidelines, and improving confidence in AI-driven outcomes?

As said before, this is one of the central themes of the physics track! While we have several dedicated symposia on these topics, we have decided to integrate abstracts that show the use of AI or machine learning approaches into sessions on their respective applications, e.g. online adaptive radiotherapy or treatment planning. In other words, we put the goal at the centre rather than the method. Thereby we have avoided isolating the AI community within ESTRO, but are bringing them into contact with non-AI experts, hopefully to foster synergistic stimulation and a common ambition to find the best solution.

We have applied this approach of focusing on the goal and not the method not just to AI abstracts: in all our preferred paper sessions we have a broad mix of abstracts coming from very different submission categories. I am quite excited to see how this is perceived by the audience!

6. Is there a particular aspect of this year's physics track that excites you personally?

My heart beats for translational medical physics in the field of particle therapy (PT). I am proud that PT is strongly integrated into the physics programme again this year, making the PT community an integral part of ESTRO. Innovations in all fields of PT will be presented. This year we feature treatment verification in PT with a dedicated session – a topic that will become even more important the more PT gets online adaptive.

What also excites me very much is the topic of probabilistic target volume definition, which will be covered in both a symposium and a proffered paper session. I believe that we are at the beginning of a paradigm shift here – and while the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements prepares a recommendation on this topic, the interdisciplinary discussion at ESTRO2025 will be both informative for the community, but also instrumental for the experts who we hope will receive relevant feedback from the ESTRO community. I believe this topic has the potential to change and improve our field!

Christian Richter, Professor for medical radiation physics at TU Dresden

Chair of the ESTRO 2025 Physics Track​

OncoRay - National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology, Dresden, Germany.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richterchr/

 

Late Registration deadline: 2 april 2025

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