The next one-day LARS workshop will be held on the 29th April 2026 in Basingstoke

Patients who have been treated for bowel cancer may experience a number of late effects. One particular issue is low anterior resection syndrome (LARS), which refers to a constellation of symptoms patients may experience after surgery for rectal cancer. These symptoms can also occur to a lesser extent after colon cancer surgery. The symptoms can range from increased frequency and urgency to debilitating incontinence in severe cases. Up to 80% of patients with low rectal cancer are affected by LARS, and although some patients’ bowel function will improve over time, others will have lifelong problems leading to a poor quality of life.

Management of late effects is often suboptimal for multiple reasons, including inadequate counselling of patients pre-operatively, failure to discuss and recognise LARS symptoms, sexual dysfunction and other life-altering consequences during follow-up and uncertainty about the best management options.

Our previous LARS meeting held on the 30th April 2025 in Basingstoke was a great success and help to empower clinicians to improve their management of patients with LARS through gaining understanding of it’s aetiology, investigation and optimal management. This new meeting will expand our scope to include other late effects, and expand to include colon cancer patients.

The workshop is aimed at surgeons, specialist nurses, oncologists, gastroenterologists, and any other clinicians who look after patients with bowel cancer.

 

Content was what I hoped it would be and helped me understand a lot more about LARS and raised my awareness of incorporating it into routine telephone call enquiries.

Transformative. I have better understanding of LARS and feel more confident to have a discussion with patient.

Good range of topics covered, nice to hear advice of different backgrounds to draw on various experience in group discussions.

                                                                    So relevant to practice to help support patients with LARS – really useful tips discussed.