"Life and professional choices of everybody are not only caused by pure technicality, even if at high levels, but also by the ascertainment of the results obtained after the treatment the doctor chooses for his patient.

Having known, at the beginning of the 90s in france and England, the possibility of treating patients suffering from cancer of the rectum without obliging them to live with the signs of an irreversibile mutilation (i.e. the artificial anus) made me and my team develop an innovative and systematic programme, which has found nowadays scientific consensus at any level.

Indeed I believe that a scientific exchange of theory and experiences for spreading the surgical technique is neccessary in order to improve the qualità of life of patients.

For reaching these targets, I have thought, together with my colleagues, that it was neccessary to create A.R.E.C.O., which main object is the constitution and management of the School-Master of specialistic surgery for the treatment of rectal tumors".

Dott. Ermanno LEO
(Oncological surgeon)
President of A.R.E.C.O.

info@areco.it

Prof. Ermanno Leo, President of the "VI International Symposium", after 25 years of medical activity, has been working for 10 years in the field of colorectal surgery at Milan Oncology Institute. His work has been aimed at preserving the patients' physical integrity and reached important clinical results (proportional to the reduction of relapsing cases from 30% to 8%) by now.

On the 7th April 2004 in Quirinale, the President of the Republic at the time, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, conferred Prof. Ermanno Leo (in the picture) the Public Health gold medal on merit, in occasion of the World Health Day. Health Minister at the time, Prof. Girolamo Sirchia took part in the cerimony, too.

Research, as well as the excellent results obtained by Dr. Leo, have been supported by the no-profit Association ARECO (Association for the European Research in Oncological Surgery) and were analysed and discussed in different, important conventions and International Symposiums, that aroused the most famous world personalities of the sector.

This year Areco opened an important project, Areco on-line, with a specific aim: the web site should be not only a scientific diffusion mean for the specialists involved and favourite meeting point for oncological surgeons, but also a source of information for everybody, as nowadays it is possible to be cured "suffering from mutilations".

On 9. November 2006 Prof. Ermanno Leo, Director of our health structure specialized in Colo-Rectal Surgery, was awarded with the title "Cavaliere di Gran Croce", for inventing «an innovative surgery technique and a postgraduate school that trains doctors in colon-rectal surgery».

The Prefect of the Province of Milan chaired the meeting, that took place at the Province Conference Hall in the presence of many doctors and representatives of some renowned clinics based in Milan.