Rectal CANCER surgery: advances, prospects and controversies

The treatment of colorectal diseases provides a fertile field for innovations. Surgery has taken up this challenge thanks to technological acquisitions that have allowed as to address different surgical problems from a different perspective. A multidisciplinary approach led to a complete cancer regression in up to 20% of patients affected by a rectal neoplasm who underwent neoadjuvant therapy. It is also true that in patients with advanced or recurrent forms of rectal cancer, an aggressive, multi-organ surgery has lead to a significant improvement of survival rates. Standardization of a healthcare path cannot be a sterile process always equal to itself, It has to represent a harmonic evolution in which surgery is guided both by experience and by updated evidence based medicine. This is the objective of the Congress in Rectal surgery that will take place in Verona on June 23rd 2023.