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A society for the immunology of radiation medicine.
SIRiiM exists because radiation is no longer understood as a purely local, purely cytotoxic intervention — and the field needs a scientific home that reflects that.
The name
The acronym nests. The capitals carry the institutional frame — Société Internationale de Radio-Médecine — and the two lowercase letters carry the mechanism, set inside it: immunité and immunomodulation. SIRiiM.
The Society's mark does this typographically. The two inner letters are drawn apart from the capitals, with the antibody glyph forming them, because they are the inner term: the biology held inside the discipline.
Rendering the acronym from the international form follows the convention used by SIOP, SIU and SICOT, which operate in English under acronyms drawn from their international names.
Each element is deliberate. Radiation Medicine is the discipline, and the field of the Society's journal. Immunity names what radiation confers — immunity conveyed by radiation, not immunity to it. Immunomodulation names the bidirectionality: the response can be heightened or blunted, and both are the Society's business.
Mission
To advance the understanding and clinical application of radiation-induced immunity and immunomodulation, and to translate that understanding into earlier screening, better surveillance, and longer, healthier survivorship.
Why now
Three decades of radiobiology treated the immune system as a bystander. The last decade established it as a determinant of outcome. The literature is now dispersed across radiation oncology, tumor immunology, radiobiology, and population health journals, with no common vocabulary, no shared endpoints, and no single scientific meeting. SIRiiM is built to close that gap.
What the Society does
- Convenes an annual international congress and focused workshops.
- Publishes the International Journal of Radiation Medicine — Screening, Surveillance, Survivorship.
- Standardizes definitions, endpoints, and reporting through consensus statements.
- Educates through fellowship curricula, webinars, and a trainee track.
- Advocates for research funding and for immune-aware treatment planning.
Governance
SIRiiM will be governed by an elected Board of Directors with a President, President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer, supported by standing scientific committees. Committee slates, terms, and the Society's bylaws will be published here ahead of the inaugural congress.
- Board of Directors — to be announced
- Scientific Program Committee — to be announced
- Publications Committee — to be announced
- Education & Training Committee — to be announced
- Guidelines & Standards Committee — to be announced
Support from the CureRays Institute
SIRiiM operates as an independent scientific society. Its Board is answerable to the membership, and its scientific positions are the Society's own.
The journal's editorial independence is structural, not merely stated. The Editor-in-Chief holds full authority over manuscript decisions, and submissions authored by the Institute's founder or leadership are handled entirely externally — the open peer-review model the journal runs on would not survive in-house handling of house submissions.