Who’s on the podium? Geographic and career diversity of ASCO Annual Meeting presenters.

Abstract

9006 Background: The ASCO annual meeting is the world’s preeminent meeting of oncology professionals. Giving an oral presentation at the ASCO annual meeting is a landmark in a career. We examined the training and geographic diversity of presenters. Methods: We identified all oral abstract or moderator presentations from the ASCO Annual Meeting 2021-2024 using asco.org. Further information on each speaker was gathered from publicly available information through internet searches of institutional websites and professional social media. We queried degree, pronoun use, medical school, institutions of post-graduate training and years of graduation. Institutions were classified by geographic region (country, state, and U.S. Census Geographic Area), type (academic versus community) and NCI-designation. Presentations per population (PPP) of 10^6 persons were standardized by state and region level 2020 US Census data. Study was IRB exempt at investigators respective institutions. Results: Between 2021-2024, there were 1563 oral presentations in abstract sessions from 1310 speakers representing 491 institutions. 253 (19%) presented more than once (range: 1-5). 57% use the ‘he’ pronoun. Most presenters were from US institutes (66.7%; n=1043), 6.3% (n=99) from China, 4.0% (n=63) from France, and 3.2% (n=50) from the UK. 69.7% (n=1090) were from North America, 17.6% (n=275) from Europe/UK, 10.2% (n=16) from Asia, and 2% (n=31) from Australia. Few presentations were given by speakers from institutions in the Middle East (0.1%, n=2) or South America (all Brazil; 0.3%, n=4), and no presentations were given by speakers from African institutions. 22% (n=347) of presentations were from the top 5 presenting institutions, all of which were in the US and 3 of 5 on East coast. 87.1% (n=768) of presentations from US institutions were from NCI-designated centers. 21 of 33 (64%) US based plenary presenters were from New England or Mid Atlantic states, while 25% (n=11/44) were from non-US institutions. PPP were highest in northeast 6.0/10^6 compared to Midwest (2.9/10^6), South (2.6/10^6), and West (2.2/10^6). Highest PPP states were MA (15.5/10^6), DC (11.6/10^6), and CT (8.6/10^6) while 13 states had no presenters. Presenters were a median of 13.0 (SD: 9.2) years post training (YPT). By ASCO definitions, 6.8% (n=63) were students/trainees, 6.1% (n=57) were early career (<3 YPT), 53.8% (4-15 YPT) were mid-career, and 35.1% (n=326) were later career (>15 YPT). Trainee and early career speakers gave 0 plenary presentations, 9.6% (n=91) of oral abstract presentations, and 22.1% (n=40) of rapid oral abstracts (p=<0.001). Conclusions: Oral presenters were most frequently mid to late career, medical oncologists and from Northeastern, US, academic, NCI-designated centers while few speakers were from community sites or early career/trainees suggesting there is room for continued diversification to represent all oncologists and those they treat.