Year of primary qualification: 1977
Current institution: National Cancer Institute G. Pascale, Naples, Italy
Title of presentation: Indications, how far can we go? (Symposium: Local excision in rectal cancer, when and how?)
Learning objectives: In recent years the advancement of neo-adjuvant radiochemotherapy for rectal cancer has changed the paradigma of treatment: a 20-30% rate of complete response can be expected with an additional 20-30% of major response. As a consequence the role of radical surgery has been questioned even considering the bad functional results following rectal excision. Organ sparing surgery with local excision is being increasingly used to treat these patients with the aim of obtaining a reasonable compromise between good oncological results and a better function. The pros and cons of this approach are discussed reporting personal experience and surveying the current literature.
Clinical/research background
Professor Romano gained a degree in Medicine and Surgery (110/110 with honors) at the University of Naples-Federico II in 1977, and was Specialist in General Surgery and Specialist in Vascular Surgery at the same University in 1982 and 1987, respectively. In 1979 he was appointed Clinical Assistant at Loreto Mare Hospital in Emergency Surgery.
In 2000 he was appointed Consultant Surgeon at the Department of General and Emergency Surgery of the Moscati Teaching Hospital in Avellino. In 2009 he was appointed Consultant Surgeon at the Department of Oncologic Surgery of the National Cancer Institute in Naples. He has been Professor of Surgery in the post-graduate School of Surgery of both Federico II and SUN Universities of Medicine in Naples since 2000.
He has been on the governing council of the Italian Society of Coloproctology and Regional Corresponder for the SIUCP. He was in the Board of the SIUCP for ten years and he has been the President of the Italian Society of Colo-Rectal Surgery (SICCR). He is currently Past President of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP).
Professor Romano is author of more than 300 scientific publications (90 papers in international peer reviewed journals), is a referee for Techniques in Coloproctology and Colorectal Disease and is a member of the Editorial Board of Techniques in Coloproctology and Rivista Italiana di Coloproctologia. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Editorial Board of Colorectal Disease.
His main scientific interests include kidney and liver transplantation, neoplastic, inflammatory and functional diseases of the colon rectum and anus. He has assisted in a large number of medium and major surgical operations, personally performing more than 2500 medium and major operations on the upper GI tract, liver, stomach, pancreas, urinary tract. Out of these more than 1000 attained disease of colon rectum and anus.
Relevant peer-reviewed publications
- Antonella Petrillo, Roberta Fusco, Mario Petrillo, Vincenza Granata, Salvatore Filice, Paolo Delrio, Fabiana Tatangelo, Biagio Pecori, Gerardo Botti, Paolo Muto, Giovanni Romano, Antonio Avallone. Dynamic Contrast Enhanced-MRI in locally advanced rectal cancer:
Value of Time Intensity Curve Visual Inspection to assess neoadjuvant therapy response. The Journal of Physiology and Health. Photon 110 (2014) 255-267 - Piccoli M, Agresta F, Trapani V, Nigro C, Pende V, Campanile FC, Vettoretto N, Belluco E, Bianchi PP, Cavaliere D, Ferulano G, La Torre F, Lirici MM, Rea R, Ricco G, Orsenigo E, Barlera S, Lettieri E, Romano GM; on behalf of The Italian Surgical Societies Working Group. Erratum to: Clinical competence in the surgery of rectal cancer: the Italian Consensus Conference. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2014 Jun 17. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24935345.
- Vettoretto N, Cirocchi R, Randolph J, Parisi A, Farinella E, Romano G. Single incision laparoscopic right colectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Colorectal Dis. 2014 Apr;16(4):O123-32. doi: 10.1111/codi.12526. PubMed PMID: 24354622.
Information submitted for ESCP Dublin 2015
