20th Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation
CAST is the flagship scientific meeting of the Asian Society of Transplantation. In October 2027 it comes to Ahmedabad, India, hosted by the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, which the AST General Body selected as host society at its meeting on 6 September 2026.
The Asian Society of Transplantation was founded in 1981, when charter members met at the annual congress of the Asian Society of Nephrology. Its first congress followed in Bali in 1989.
Since then CAST has moved around the continent, carrying the Society’s work between transplant communities that differ enormously in size, law, funding and donation culture. Ahmedabad is the 20th edition.
The Society
Three aims were written into the Society at its founding, and they still shape what the congress programme is for.
India’s extensive experience in living donor transplantation, its growing deceased donor programmes and its work in paired organ exchange offer real opportunities for shared learning across the region.
That progress carries a common responsibility: to expand access while protecting donors, maintaining ethical practice and improving long-term outcomes for recipients. It is the discussion the congress exists to have.
Ahmedabad anchors it. The city is home to the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre and Dr H L Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences (IKDRC-ITS), a major Indian centre for transplantation, training and research, and its historic walled city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017.
AST and ISOT invite colleagues from across Asia and beyond.
ISOT brings together India's transplant physicians, surgeons and coordinators, and hosts CAST 2027 alongside its own 37th Annual Conference.
Founded in 1981, AST unites transplant professionals across Asia and convenes this congress, its flagship scientific meeting.
