It’s going to be a busy 4 days in Paris, with 166 late-breaking studies and nearly 2,000 clinical cases to be presented.
In just over a week, EuroPCR 2026, one of the leading courses in interventional medicine, is set to kick off in Paris, France, a city in full bloom at this time of year.
The theme is “Education Saves Lives: Preventing and Solving Complications,” and as always, the program includes a range of different formats for attendees to take in the wealth of new science and data devoted to interventional best practices.
The meeting takes place once again at the Palais des Congrès de Paris and TCTMD will be there, too. I’ll be attending, along with Yael L. Maxwell and L.A. McKeown. Feel free to reach out to me if you have something you think might make a good story. I am also bringing my running shoes and am always looking for a partner in crime, if you’re interested.
There are a whopping 166 late-breaking clinical trials slated for presentation, which is more than last year, spread across 18 hotline/late-breaking sessions. The EuroPCR program includes more than 500 sessions and 800 hours of programming with 3,000 faculty members and presenters. All told, 1,984 clinical cases and 1,129 abstracts will be presented and discussed.
Prior to the “official” start on Tuesday, May 19, the day before the meeting is dedicated to the PCR Fellows Course, which is tailored to doctors at early stages of their interventional careers, and the popular Innovators Day, which brings key stakeholders together. The pre-course Monday, May 18, also includes a 1-day program focused on the use of coronary physiology to help in clinical decision-making.
For the new science, the EuroPCR course directors—Thomas Cuisset, MD, PhD (CHU La Timone, Marseille, France), Nicolas Dumonteil, MD (Clinique Pasteur, Toulouse, France), and Nieves Gonzalo, MD (San Carlos University Hospital, Madrid, Spain)—have starred three “major” late-breaking clinical trials that will be presented in Theatre Bleu on Wednesday, May 20, at 9:45 AM.
The first of these major studies is a patient-level meta-analysis of trials investigating the merits of revascularization in patients with concomitant coronary artery disease and aortic stenosis scheduled for TAVI.
The second presentation is dedicated to long-term follow-up of patients with left main coronary artery disease treated with CABG surgery or PCI. The debate over the optimal revascularization approach for left main CAD had been simmering for years, with the mortality controversy gaining steam with 5-year outcomes from the EXCEL trial showing that PCI was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. A subsequent meta-analysis put many of those fears to rest, but PCI was downgraded to a class IIa (level of evidence A) recommendation for stable patients with left main disease and an intermediate SYNTAX score.
The last of the major studies is an age-stratified comparison of left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) versus direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Recently, the CHAMPION-AF investigators showed that LAAO was no worse than DOAC therapy at 3 years, although not everyone was convinced by the data. In 2025, the CLOSURE-AF trial showed that LAAO was “not noninferior” to standard care with oral anticoagulation in patients with AF.
More and More Hotlines
The other hotline sessions are scattered over the course of the 4-day meeting, with the first kicking off at noon on Tuesday, May 19. That session is dedicated to new evidence in the treatment of calcified lesions. There is also a noon hotline session covering trials exploring new devices in management of coronary artery disease, such as thinner-strut bioresorbable scaffolds, DES with biodegradable polymers, and the Bioadaptor “unlocking” coronary device. At 3:00 PM, there is a session focused on outcomes in tricuspid valve interventions and another on optimal pharmacology for CAD.
On Wednesday, in addition to the major late-breaking trial presentations, there are seven additional hotline sessions, with the first, beginning at 8:30 AM, focused on innovative strategies in ACS, including use of drug-coated balloons and intravascular lithotripsy. At 9:45 AM, there is a session devoted to outcomes and new procedural approaches in transcatheter mitral interventions. At the same time, another hotline is dedicated to new devices in structural interventions.
At 11:15 AM on Wednesday, there will be more data from head-to-head trials in TAVI, such as 3-year outcomes from the SMART trial, 2-year data from LANDMARK, and health status outcomes from NOTION-2, among others. There are two sessions addressing use of DCBs, one at 11:15 AM and another at 3:00 PM, including data from SELUTION De Novo and long-term outcomes in patients with small-vessel disease. The last hotline of the day is focused on coronary physiology in epicardial disease (3:00 PM).
On Thursday, there are two hotline sessions on TAVI, both at 9:45 AM, with a focus on a range of procedural strategies and clinical practice. At 11:00 AM, a hotline session tackles coronary revascularization and includes a randomized comparison of LV unloading in complex PCI and data on the use of LV support in high-risk PCI from the PROTECT-EU registry. Later that afternoon, there are hotline sessions on intracoronary imaging-guided interventions (3:10 PM) and on the use of physiology to assess microvascular disease (4:15 PM).
The final hotline session takes place on Friday at 10:15 AM and is dedicated to LAAO and pulmonary embolism (PE), including a meta-analysis looking at mechanical thrombectomy versus catheter-directed thrombolysis for PE.
Live Cases
As always, live cases are part of this year’s program, with eight participating clinical sites: Cleveland Clinic (London, England), Clinique Pasteur (Toulouse, France), Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris Sud (Massy, France), Leipzig Heart Centre (Germany), Rigshospitalet Heart Centre (Copenhagen, Denmark), Sant’Andrea University Hospital (Rome, Italy), University Hospital Basel (Switzerland), and University Medical Centre (Mainz, Germany).
The 17 live educational cases include transcatheter mitral valve replacement, TAVI, physiology-guided PCI, revascularization of left main CAD, chronic total occlusion (CTO) PCI, a mitral valve-in-valve procedure, and revascularization in complex, calcified lesions, among others.
Finally, the meeting will have new tracks dedicated to CTOs and a skills lab focused on calcification. The program includes simulation-based learning and hands-on labs focused on multiple scenarios clinicians encounter in practice. The Innovation Hub is again a central part of EuroPCR and includes both a showroom of new technology/devices and a learning initiative, run in partnership with TCT, focused on artificial intelligence in clinical and academic cardiology.
The full program is available here.
