Bio

Alessandro Larcher, MD, is a Urologist and researcher in the Kidney Cancer Group, URI, where he serves with the responsibility of the clinical and research program devoted to Von Hippel-Lindau disease. He graduated from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and completed there his residency in Urology. After a research fellowship at the Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit at CHUM, Montreal, Canada, he accomplished a clinical fellowship at the Department of Urology, OLV Ziekenhuis, Aalst, Belgium. He also served as Scientific Director at ORSI Academy in Melle, Belgium, the largest training center for robotic surgery in Europe. He is currently Adjunct Professor and member of the Evaluation Board for PhD Students at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. Alessandro Larcher is the chair of the YAU working group on robot-assisted surgery and Junior ERUS of the European Association of Urology.

Education

2016 – 2018 Fellowship in robotic surgery (Pilot II study), OLV Robotic Surgery Institute, Aalst, Belgium (Supervisor: Prof. A. Mottrie)

2014 Research fellowship, Cancer prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit of the University of Montreal (CHUM), Canada (Supervisor: Prof. P.I. Karakiewicz)

2012 – 2017 Residency in Urology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

2005 - 2011 Medical School, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

Professional experience

2021 - present Executive Member, Education Office, SIU Live Scientific Committee, Società Italiana di Urologia (SIU)

2019 – present Chair, J ERUS/YAU working group on robot-assisted surgery, European Association Urology (EAU)

2018 – present Staff urologist, Department of Urology, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy

2016 – 2018 Scientific Director, ORSI Academy, Belgium

 

LAB

Research activity

Alessandro Larcher’s research focus on two main lines: familial and sporadic kidney cancer and robot-assisted surgery. Since inception, his research activity has been supported by numerous research grants dedicated to non-profit, spontaneous research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and the European Union, VHL Alliance and Intuitive Surgery.

He has developed the first training curriculum for robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (https://www.europeanurology.com/article/S0302-2838(19)30178-2/fulltext) and this project has been recognized with the “La Fucina Del Futuro in Medicina e Odontoiatria" prize awarded by the Milan Medical Council for the best scientific contribution in the field of technical and ethical choices in therapeutic innovations and with the "EAU Hans Marberger Award 2020" prize awarded by the European Association of Urology for the best paper in the field of minimally invasive surgery. He has also directed many multi-institutional, international studies investigating clinical outcomes following robot-assisted surgery in patients with complex renal cancer, oncological outcomes following salvage robot-assisted surgery for recurrent renal cancer and the impact of human factors such as experience and skills on clinical outcomes following robotic surgery for renal cancer.

Alessandro Larcher is currently responsible for the Institutional clinical and research program devoted to Von Hippel-Lindau disease. The program has already achieved national recognition as hub centre for VHL disease in Italy and international recognition as Clinical Care Centre by VHL Alliance (https://vhl.org/care-treatment/clinical-care-centers/), the largest patients and clinicians’ organization worldwide and the implementation of such model for care centralization for rare disease has been taken as a reference by prestigious international, peer-reviewd, scientific journals (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41585-024-00874-y). The ongoing research projects include investigation of novel diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in VHL disease and renal cancer including the application of novel radiopharmaceuticals and the definition of precision surgery for challenging scenarios such as renal cancer in VHL disease.

 

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