The Centre Antoine Lacassagne consolidates its leadership in rectal oncology, announcing the first international scientific congress L.UCA.RRE

The very first L.UCA.RRE international scientific congress will be held on November 25, 2023 at the Aston hotel – La Scala, in Nice, under the aegis of Pr. Jean-Pierre Gérard, President of the Centre Antoine Lacassagne. The aim of the event is to provide an update on scientific advances in rectal cancer treatment.

The L.UCA.RRE congress will be supported by a number of renowned partners, including the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), the Société Française de Radiothérapie Oncologique (SFERO), the French National Cancer Institute, Unicancer, the University Côte d’Azur and others. Experts from Brazil, the USA, Canada, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK will also be taking part.

Context : the progress of research in rectal preservation in the treatment of rectal cancer

While heavy surgeries are usually conducted to cure these cancers, with a severe impairment of rectal function as a result of the treatment, new methods that preserve rectal function could well replace them in the long term. The Centre Antoine Lacassagne has played a leading role in this new dynamic, notably through an international project on the subject that it piloted, published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal. This solution is now recommended by several French organizations, demonstrating a major transformation in clinical practices for rectal cancer. A transformation largely carried out by the Centre Antoine Lacassagne !

A number of methods for rectal preservation during treatment exist, thus the aim of this congress is to bring together leading international experts in the field, over a single day, to discuss these methods and establish new scientific consensus.

L.UCA.RRE congress’ objectives and program 

Chemotherapies, local exeresis surgery, endocavitary radiotherapy… the attendees will seek to determine the future of best practices in rectal oncology, during an exhaustive program. Together with the Institut Gustave Roussy, the center will be presenting a large series of Phase III clinical trials at the congress, to assess and compare the therapeutic value of the various solutions currently in demand. These sessions will last 30 minutes each, with questions and answers at the end, and will precede a panel of scientific conferences. This is the first time that recent results from all these randomized trials will be presented simultaneously. These discussions should lead to substantial advances in the field !

In a year’s time, the scientists are due to take stock of the progress made with these new methods in Sao Paulo, a city that has been leading the way in conservative rectal treatment for the past 10 years, at the biannual FICARE congress. In 2025, if this international cooperation continues as it should, Nice will host the second L.UCA.RRE congress, thus confirming its pioneering role in this strategy of “therapeutic deescalation“.

This dynamic through the Côte d’Azur is gradually enabling patients in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’Azur region to benefit from these cutting-edge so-called “conservative” treatments, in the various expert centers in the area that are currently cooperating on this research.