Please note that this program is subject to change.
Plenary session
Concurrent session
Best of the best / rapid fire orals
Delegate designed symposia
COSA meetings / AGM
Social functions
Breakfast sessions
Breaks
8:30 am
Plenary session
Opening ceremony
9:00 am
Plenary session
The ingredients of providing personalised care
This opening plenary explores the ingredients of truly personalised cancer care — from tumour-agnostic drug development and pharmacogenomic prescribing to addressing inequity in access. International and Australian leaders examine how biology, therapeutics, systems, and social context intersect to deliver precision oncology that is scientifically robust, clinically actionable, and equitable.
10:30 am
Break
Morning tea, poster viewing and exhibition
11:00 am
Concurrent session
She's a good 85!
Frailty is increasingly recognised as a key determinant of outcome and patient experience amongst older individuals with cancer. This session discusses the diagnostic approach to frailty and reviews recommendations for the optimal multidisciplinary management of this often-reversible syndrome.
Concurrent session
Early onset colorectal cancer: insights across the care continuum
Biological drivers of increasing incidence, understanding diagnostic pathways, a novel MDT clinical model, nursing care for younger adults, and the perspectives of those with lived experience.
Concurrent session
Smoke, vapes and mirrors
Smoking remains the major known cause of cancer, but cessation is no longer the whole story. First Nations, CALD, and cancer patients are vulnerable not only to smoking but to misinformation about vaping safety.
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
12:30 pm
Break
Lunch, poster viewing and exhibition
1:30 pm
Plenary session
Hype or hope
Hyperbaric oxygen, homeopathy, high dose vitamin C, probiotics, repurposed medications, and all manner of non-classical treatments are being investigated by patients and their families. This session examines whether these interventions are all hype or could, in fact, change our approach to cancer management.
3:00 pm
Break
Afternoon tea, poster viewing, exhibition and rapid fire oral presentations
4:00 pm
Concurrent session
Prehabilitation in oncology: running from evidence to impact
Growing evidence shows multimodal prehabilitation interventions can improve cancer outcomes. This session explores the evidence-base, implementation in oncology settings, and future directions for people with cancer.
Concurrent session
Medicine matters for all
Medicines are central to cancer care. This session explores the evolving role of medicines in improving patient outcomes, safety, and access — highlighting innovations, challenges, and opportunities in optimising cancer medicines use.
Concurrent session
Screening — is hope overtaking reality?
High-risk individual identification, liaison with GPs, and recognition of barriers to personal participation — explored by speakers engaged in breast, lung, cervical, and bowel screening.
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
5:30 pm
Pre-conference
Breakfast session
Head & neck cancer MDT
9:00 am
Plenary session
Living longer, living stronger: turning advanced cancer into chronic disease
Recent progress in the treatment of many advanced cancers has led to improvements in survival and growing numbers of metastatic cancer survivors. This session explores advances and challenges in metastatic survivorship care from the perspectives of clinicians, consumers, and researchers — and strategies to support survivors to live longer and stronger.
10:30 am
Break
Morning tea, poster viewing and exhibition
11:00 am
Concurrent session
Precision exercise medicine for personalised cancer care
Precision exercise medicine tailors exercise prescriptions for individuals, recognising that different exercise doses elicit distinct physiological and functional benefits for cancer survivors. This session explores the evidence-base and provides recommendations to optimise personalised cancer care.
Concurrent session
Enabling equitable genomics-informed cancer care in Australia
The national genomics policy landscape for routine cancer care, key implementation initiatives, and how the sector can incorporate genomics into cancer care for children and adults.
Concurrent session
It's not just bad luck: when your job or environment causes cancer
Cancer due to unavoidable workplace or environmental exposures generates huge community concern and is totally preventable. The scope of this burden and options for action will be explored.
Concurrent session
Fear of the big C: how cancer-related worry influences prevention, screening, risk communication, survivorship, and clinical care
Cancer-related anxiety influences decisions, behaviours, communication, and relationships throughout the cancer trajectory. Presenters offer insights into when anxiety is potentially helpful and when it becomes harmful.
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
12:30 pm
Break
Lunch, poster viewing and exhibition
1:30 pm
Plenary session
Tom Reeve Award and presentation
1:50 pm
Plenary session
It's in the numbers: connecting cancer data, practice and policy to deliver impact
How can health data drive real change? This plenary explores how evidence becomes impact — from research findings shaping policy, to real-world clinical data improving care, to dashboards translating insights into action at the point of care. Speakers share practical lessons, challenges, and opportunities for influence across systems and settings.
3:00 pm
COSA meeting
COSA AGM
Break
Afternoon tea, poster viewing, exhibition and rapid fire oral presentations
4:00 pm
Concurrent session
Existential distress — assessment, therapeutic approaches, and new advances
Existential distress in cancer involves threats to meaning, identity, and one's relationship with mortality. Experts in psycho-oncology, palliative care, and death anxiety examine assessment, key therapeutic frameworks, and emerging clinical approaches.
Concurrent session
Lung cancer across the continuum: precision, protection and performance
The latest multidisciplinary updates in thoracic oncology — from precision liquid biopsy to minimising cardiotoxicity from radiotherapy, and how exercise oncology and nurse-led models of care optimise patient outcomes.
Concurrent session
Cancer on my mind
Innovations in personalised oncology care for primary and secondary brain cancer — spotlighting pre-existing and ongoing trauma, rehabilitation, return to work and driving, and emerging treatments.
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
Best of the best orals
Best of the best oral presentations
Speakers TBC
5:30 pm
COSA meeting
COSA group meetings
Pre-conference
Breakfast session
Breaking the age barrier: transforming age attitudes in health care
COSA-sponsored breakfast session in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission.
9:00 am
Plenary session
The cancer workforce we need: equity, culture, and care quality
This plenary explores how workforce culture, equity, and inclusion shape cancer care quality. Through multidisciplinary perspectives, speakers examine global and local strategies to build a sustainable, diverse, and patient-centred oncology workforce — addressing structural barriers, supporting wellbeing, and strengthening systems to deliver equitable outcomes.
10:30 am
Break
Morning tea, poster viewing and exhibition
11:00 am
Concurrent session
Early menopause after cancer: multidisciplinary strategies for personalised care
Early menopause caused by cancer treatment can significantly affect younger women's physical and emotional wellbeing. Experts across oncology, endocrinology, nursing, psychosocial care, and lived experience discuss evidence-based, multidisciplinary strategies.
Concurrent session
AI and biomarkers in cancer care: from detection to decisions
Details TBC
Concurrent session
Beyond one-size-fits-all: personalised nutrition across the cancer care continuum
Evidence-based nutrition care aligned to individual risk, treatment phase, and patient priorities — spanning prehabilitation to palliative care, with a focus on malnutrition and muscle health.
Delegate designed symposia
Submitted symposia
Details TBC
Delegate designed symposia
Submitted symposia
Details TBC
12:30 pm
Break
Lunch, poster viewing and exhibition
1:30 pm
Plenary session
We can build it… but will it embed? The realities of implementing cancer care innovations
Why is it so hard to implement cancer care interventions that we know work? National leaders share candid "warts and all" reflections on embedding effective models of care into real-world practice — across precision oncology, lung cancer screening, and exercise oncology — covering what helps, what hinders, and practical lessons for researchers, clinicians, and consumers.
3:00 pm
Plenary session
COSA Presidential Lecture — COSAx (three TED-style talks)
Three short, high-impact talks across cancer care and research.
Speakers TBC
3:45 pm
Close
Conference close