Premier Radiation Oncology Meeting Breaks Attendance, Exhibit Space Record at Bost...( FAIRFAX Va. Oct. 30 -- The Ameri...),Health

FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology welcomed 12,487 people to its 50th Annual Meeting held September 21-25, 2008, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and featured 114,200 net square feet of exhibit space -- a 714 person and 4,900 square feet increase over last year, respectively. Both the attendance numbers and Exhibit Hall square footage are also all-time highs for an ASTRO Annual Meeting.

This year's Annual Meeting also had a large economic impact on its host city. An estimated $27 million in revenue was brought into the city of Boston as a direct result of the ASTRO Annual Meeting, according to the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"This year was an extremely successful year for our Annual Meeting," Laura I. Thevenot, ASTRO's chief executive officer, said. "I am very proud of our dedicated staff and leadership for all of their hard work in making our 50th anniversary meeting one of our best ever."

The ASTRO Annual Meeting is the premier scientific meeting in radiation oncology and attracts attendees of various disciplines, including oncologists, physicists, biologists, nurses and other healthcare professionals from all over the world. The theme of the 2008 meeting was "50 Years of Learning, Caring and Collaboration in the Treatment of Cancer Patients" and the program highlighted the accomplishments of ASTRO's past, while addressing lessons learned in radiation oncology and goals for the future of the specialty.

ASTRO's 51st Annual Meeting will be held November 1-5, 2009, at McCormick Place in Chicago.

For more information on ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org. To learn more about radiation therapy, visit http://www.rtanswers.org.

ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with 10,000 members who specia
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