RESCOLL involved in the European Project “AnastomoSEAL” : Kick-off meeting
Rescoll’Blog / 28 juin 2012
The project AnastomoSEAL, a collaborative project financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Program, has been launched on the 1st of May 2012. AnastomoSEAL, whose extended title reads “Development of a resorbable sealing patch for the prevention of anastomotic leakage after colorectal cancer surgical treatment”, is a three-year project that has been approved and financed by the European Union under the theme “Biomaterials for tissue engineering for age-related cancer and sensory organ diseases”.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common form of cancer and the third most common cancer cause of death in Europe. CRC is generally a malignancy associated with the elderly, with a mean age at diagnosis of 73 years. At the age of 70 years, at least 50% of the Western population develops some form of CRC, spanning the spectrum from an early benign polyp to an invasive adenocarcinoma. The curative management of CRC is mainly surgical and is based on the resection of the affected bowel.
The most frequent and feared post-operative complication of any bowel resection is “Anastomotic Leakage” (AL) which occurs when proper and rapid regeneration of the intestinal tissue does not takes place. The incidence of AL depends on the segment of colon involved and on the kind of operation performed. The rate of AL after rectal cancer surgery varies according to different countries reaching the value of 21% of patients and leading to mortality up to 39.3% of cases. At present, efficient treatments or drugs to prevent the onset of AL are still not available.
These surgical methods are very invasive, physically and psychologically debilitating and painful for the patient. Moreover these methods are not fully efficient; therefore the prognosis and the health care of this pathology have not shown any considerable improvement recently. Despite the clinical importance of AL and the substantial morbidity and mortality associated with anastomotic leakage, the practicing surgeon currently has few available options to reduce its incidence.
The AnastomoSEAL project is focused on responding to the widespread clinical need of preventing Anastomotic Leakage after CRC resection. The objective of this project is the development of an engineered bioresorbable biomaterial capable of promoting a safe sealing during the critical period of tissue healing without causing adverse reactions. The new and innovative product prototypes produced by AnastomoSEAL will fill the unmet needs in rapid colorectal anastomosis regeneration and prevention of leakage. The use of the proposed material will have many advantages and benefits with respect to the current surgical techniques used for the prevention of AL.
The Consortium of AnastomoSEAL is composed of 6 partners: 2 Universities (University of Trieste – Italy, University of Maastricht – The Netherlands; 3 SME (Rescoll – France, SIGEA – Italy, IMPULS – Poland); 1 enterprise (FMC BioPolymer – Norway). AnastomoSEAL will merge the joint efforts of more than 30 scientists and surgeons from 5 different countries as the technological and strategic improvements proposed by AnastomoSEAL can only be realized with this interdisciplinary cooperation of recognized academic groups and innovative companies. Overall, the Consortium is comprised of high-profile teams with specific expertise required for a successful realization of the project objectives.
Besides the involvement in scientific research, the University of Trieste, with Prof. Sergio Paoletti and Prof. Nicolò De Manzini, will be coordinating the Consortium being in charge of administrative, financial and managerial aspects of the project and acting as a direct contact between the project Consortium and the European Commission.
RESCOLL will be involved in the development of adhesive properties of the biomaterials and of the material reinforcement. The development and validation of an appropriate sterilization process will be achieved by RESCOLL too.
Contact : Marie-Pierre Foulc (mp.foulc@rescoll.fr)
