Interventional Oncology Sans Frontières: An Interview With Luigi Solbiati, MD

The first Interventional Oncology Sans Frontières (IOSF) meeting convened in 2013 in Cernobbio, Italy. The IOSF meeting will convene for the second time in July 2016 in Milan. Interventional Oncology 360 spoke with meeting cofounder Luigi Solbiati, MD, about the origins of the meeting and new offerings this year.

IO360:  Tell us about how the meeting was first organized.

Solbiati: I started organizing small meetings on interventional oncology in 1994. These continued every other year in Milan. Then in 2006, I organized the first WCIO conference in Milan because it was clear there was a need for an international congress. Over the years, WCIO became mostly an American meeting. I saw a need to connect interventional oncology clinicians not only in America and Europe but also in Asia, where there is a very strong interventional oncology presence. Because the United States can be a difficult travel location for many physicians in Asia, Dr. Nahun Goldberg and I organized the first IOSF meeting in Lake Como and will host it again this year in Milan. 

IO360: This is exclusively an interventional oncology meeting? 

Solbiati: It’s exclusively for interventional oncology, but not only for radiologists. That’s the main difference. For example, in Europe, the European Conference on Interventional Oncology (ECIO) attendance is made up almost entirely of radiologists. There is not a prohibition for nonradiologists to attend, but it naturally evolved that way. Our goal with IOSF is to mix radiologists and nonradiology clinicians. Some clinicians perform procedures themselves. Other clinicians refer patients for IO procedures.

IO360: Are there oncology clinicians from other areas, like medical oncology?

Solbiati: We have a large number of medical oncologists as well as hepatologists. A large part of the meeting is dedicated to the liver. There are not many surgeons, but this year, we have tried to attract more surgeons for the new technological session, the “First World Meeting on Fusion Imaging and Augmented Reality for Interventional Procedures.” In those fields, surgeons, and especially neurosurgeons and hepatic surgeons, are very advanced. They use these newest technologies, so we want them to show us what they can do. 

IO360: So neurointerventionalists are using technologies that you are just beginning to use in interventional oncology? 

Solbiati: Yes, especially simulators to teach how to approach, for example, a brain tumor. The simulators have images of patients in models so that physicians can navigate inside and see what happens if they cut a certain area. So that fascinated me. We want interventional neurosurgeons to show us the possibilities in their field. A great advantage for them is that the brain does not move. Other organs move usually. The lungs move. The liver, spleen, kidneys, move and it’s hard to guide in these procedures. The brain remains fixed. But we can still learn from them. The purpose of the imaging session is just to learn from each other. 

IO360: So this is new. Is that a trend in general interventional oncology, more cross specialty communication? 

Solbiati: Yes. I started performing interventional oncology procedures in 1982. I have always tried to stay on the cutting edge of technology. I strongly feel that in the next 10 years, technology for guiding and performing any kind of interventional procedure, surgical or simply interventional, will have dramatic, incredible development. Technology advances every day. 

Recently I saw a simulation system that used an iPhone. Using simply an iPhone connected to a computer, you can navigate inside the body. Everyone has a smartphone now. Having ultrasound probes or robots can be expensive.

IO360: It’s a technology that can go across the world because everyone has it in his or her hand already.

Solbiati: This will facilitate the training of young surgeons and interventional radiologists, so it’s tremendous progress in this field. I wanted to create this special imaging session because of these new technologies that exist and because it hasn’t been done before for interventional oncology.

IO360: What else do you think is special that you want to point out particularly about this meeting?

Solbiati: I have introduced some totally new topics such as elastosonography to monitor ablation. We have seen that temperature and consistency is different in some tissue come together. Some technology advancements in general, not just fusion and robots. Then in the remainder of the meeting, we will talk about interventional oncology procedures as well as the alternatives — surgery, radiation.

Then we will have a focus on intra-arterial procedures. Just recently, Karen Brown from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published an excellent paper, the first paper in the world with a randomized clinical trial comparing embolization with chemoembolization, and the results are dramatic for industry because it demonstrated the same result for both (https://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2016/01/28/JCO.2015.64.0821.abstract). So I’ve asked her to present the results. 

I also tried to keep some special highlights for the last day, such as the presentation by Riad Salem on myths in interventional radiology. 

IO360: So what’s your goal? What’s your passion driving you to keep the meeting going?

Solbiati: Given the fact that Europe is geographically situated between America and Asia, my dream is to create a real connection between key worlds —America, Europe, and Asia — which currently is not well achieved by other meetings for a variety of reasons. I want to encourage communication among radiologists and nonradiologists from many different countries. 

My second goal is to try to demonstrate that in the coming years the most important advancements in interventional oncology will be technological advances. The methods of treating intra-arterially will be stabilized, but guiding methods will improve. 

I’d also like to dedicate the last few years of my career to improving training for the young clinicians who will be future leaders in interventional oncology. 

IO360: Anything else to add? 

Solbiati: I am honored that so many esteemed interventional oncology leaders have joined the faculty of IOSF, because this is not a society meeting. I’m very proud to be putting these clinicians in the same room. 

Suggested citation: Ford J. Interventional Oncology Sans Frontières: an interview with Luigi Solbiati, MD. Intervent Oncol 360. 2016;4(6):E92-E94.