BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 ― Experts from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will present nearly 70 abstracts at the 2026 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting . Along with UT MD Anderson's top abstracts , selected oral presentations below highlight important findings to ensure radiation is accurately delivered and to validate a modern genomic test with a historical data set.
More information on all UT MD Anderson ASTRO Annual Meeting content can be found at MDAnderson.org/ASTRO .
Planning choices drive quality of radiosurgery delivery (Abstract 348 )
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) requires highly accurate targeting and extremely precise dose delivery to be effective. However, quality assurance audits historically have focused only on the accuracy and precision of the machines and not on the radiation plan itself.
In this study, researchers analyzed more than 800 radiation treatment plans from over 650 institutions performed from 2013-2025. All plans were made for the same target inside a standard model, known as a phantom, designed to measure radiation delivery in the head. Across treatment platforms, the volume of healthy brain receiving a high dose differed nearly fivefold. While the limits of each machine played a factor, the study found that on standard linear accelerators, the planner's choices explained more of the differences than the equipment. The most important choice was how tightly the radiation field was shaped around the target.
"The same plan on different machines does not mean the same dose to healthy brain," said presenting author Lian Duan, a Ph.D. candidate in Radiation Physics. "Clinics should benchmark against their own equipment and treat that benchmark as a starting point. Careful planning on the same hardware can still improve a plan substantially."
Duan works with Stephen Kry, Ph.D. , in the Image and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) housed at UT MD Anderson, one of four centers across the country funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) to check and maintain quality standards for radiation therapy in cancer clinical trials.
Genetic classification is a powerful predictor of prostate cancer behavior (Abstract 315 )
The NRG/RTOG 9601 trial was a landmark prostate cancer radiation therapy study that changed clinical practice, showing that adding anti-androgen therapy to salvage radiation improved outcomes for patients whose cancer returned after surgery.
However, anti-androgen therapy can cause significant side effects. When the initial results were published, clinicians had no reliable way to determine which patients were most likely to benefit from the added treatment. Since then, additional research has suggested that testing for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by cells in the prostate, can help in decision making. Even with this test, estimating the aggressiveness of a specific patient's recurrence remains a challenge.
To address this, researchers led by Krishnan Patel, M.D. , associate professor of Radiation Oncology, analyzed tumor samples from this landmark trial using a modern genomic test that evaluates genetic material within a tumor to better predict its behavior. The test was able to separate patients into groups with markedly different long-term outcomes, which can help physicians counsel patients regarding their prognosis. Fifteen years after treatment, 75% of patients in the low-risk group were still alive, compared with 25% of patients in the very high-risk group.
This study also suggests that the genomic test could be used in addition to standard blood tests such as the PSA test. For example, where many physicians may have previously recommended hormone therapy for men with high pre-radiation PSA levels and not for those with low values, this study suggests that a group of patients with low pre-radiation PSA levels and aggressive biological features may benefit from hormone therapy.
"The ability to apply a modern genomic test to samples from a clinical trial conducted nearly two decades ago is incredibly valuable," Patel said. "These findings are helping us continue to personalize treatment recommendations, allowing some patients who are unlikely to benefit from hormone therapy avoid its side effects, while giving clinicians greater confidence in identifying those who are most likely to benefit."
2026 ASTRO Awards
In addition to presentations at the meeting, several UT MD Anderson faculty are being honored for their accomplishments, including:
- ASTRO Gold Medalist: Bruce Minsky, M.D. , professor emeritus of Radiation Oncology
- ASTRO Fellow: Chelsea Pinnix, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Radiation Oncology
- 2026 ASTRO Mentorship award: Clifton Fuller, M.D., Ph.D. , professor of Radiation Oncology
