ECCO News

ECCO News keeps ECCO Members up-to-date on what is going on within the organisation and reports on IBD activities taking place within Europe. Since Spring 2006, ECCO News has maintained the flow of information between Members of the organisation. 

ECCO News is an important part of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation’s ambition to create a European standard of IBD care and to promote knowledge and research in the field of IBD. 

Editor & Associate Editors

Edouard Louis
© ECCO

Nuha Yassin
© ECCO

Ignacio Catalán-Serra
© ECCO

Brigida Barberio
© ECCO

Spyros Siakavellas
© ECCO

Latest ECCO News Content


26October2023

Report on the 8th ECCO Scientific Workshop on postoperative recurrence in Crohn’s Disease

Marc Ferrante, SciCom Chair, Yves Panis, SciCom Member and Pauline Rivière, ECCO Member


Marc Ferrante
© ECCO
Yves Panis
© ECCO
Pauline Rivière
© Pauline Rivière

For two years, a group of 25 IBD specialists, including gastroenterologists, surgeons and scientists, have been working to build a research framework for postoperative recurrence (POR) in patients with Crohn’s Disease. Even though more biological therapies are now available, ileocaecal resection is still a frequent event and POR management remains a challenge for both patients and IBD specialists.

Posted in ECCO News, SciCom, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 3, Fellowships & Grants Synopsis Reports

26October2023

ECCO'24 - Preliminary Scientific and Educational Programmes



The Educational Programme of the 19th Congress of ECCO starts prior to the official start of the ECCO Congress and courses take place from February 21-24, 2024. These activities target ECCO’s different interest groups including young gastroenterologists, surgeons, paediatricians, pathologists, IBD Nurses, dietitians, allied health professionals and scientists.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 3, Congress News

26October2023

Letter from the ECCO President

Britta Siegmund, ECCO President


Britta Siegmund
© ECCO

 

Dear ECCO Friends,

It is autumn already, many us have attended the UEG Week in Copenhagen and we are already preparing for the next ECCO Congress 2024 in Stockholm!

The theme of the Stockholm Congress is “Crossing Borders in IBD”, which underlines the global community that ECCO embraces, working together to improve patient care and quality of life worldwide. In view of the last few weeks, we would like to emphasise that ECCO stands for peaceful coexistence and sympathy for all the innocent people who are suffering. We as ECCO demand the immediate release of all hostages. We sincerely hope that the situation will calm down soon and that we will be able to see each other in Stockholm!

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 3, Letters from the ECCO President

15June2023

Meet the JCC Authors: Podcast with Philip Harvey

Brigida Barberio, ECCO News Associate Editor

Brigida Barberio
© Brigida Barberio

Dear ECCO Friends and Family,

In this new episode of our podcast “Meet the JCC Author”, it is my pleasure to introduce Philip Harvey from the Royal Wolverhamptom NHS Hospital, UK.

He talks about his paper recently published in JCC: “Venous Thromboembolism following discharge from Hospital in Patients Admitted for Inflammatory Bowel Disease”.

We hope you enjoy it and do not forget to spread the word about our new podcast to your friends and colleagues!

Best Wishes,

Brigida Barberio

ECCO News Associate Editor

Posted in ECCO News, Meet the JCC Authors, Podcasts and Videos, Volume 18, Issue 2

15June2023

Interview with ECCO's new Education Officer Gionata Fiorino

Alessandro Armuzzi, ECCO News Editor

Alessandro Armuzzi
© ECCO

Gionata, why did you decide to be a gastroenterologist, and then an IBDologist?

I decided to be a gastroenterologist and an IBDologist at the same time. It happened during my third year of medical school. During my pathology class, I loved to learn about mechanisms of inflammation, and I realised my favourite topic was intestinal inflammation. At the same time, I was sensitive to IBD, since I have got seven cases of IBD in my family; therefore I decided to start my career in this specific field.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 2

15June2023

Y-ECCO Interview Corner: Iris Dotan

Robin Dart, Y-ECCO Member

Robin Dart
© ECCO

Iris Dotan is a gastroenterologist and mucosal immunologist based at Rabin Medical Center, Israel. She is chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) and is well known to ECCO Members through her previous membership of SciCom, her speeches at ECCO Congress and her permanent presence on the Hearts and Minds dancefloor. During a break at the ECCO Congress in Copenhagen, I sat down with Iris to discuss her career, how mentorship has been important to her and, for anyone who has been on a Zoom call with her in the last 3 years, the origins of the beautiful painting she is usually seen sitting in front of.

Posted in ECCO News, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 2, Y-ECCO

15June2023

Y-ECCO Literature Review: Mohammed Tauseef Sharip

Mohammed Tauseef Sharip

Vedolizumab for the treatment of chronic pouchitis

Travis S, Silverberg MS, Danese S, et al., EARNEST Study Group

N Engl J Med 2023;388:1191–1200. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2208450.


Mohammed T. Sharip
© Mohammed T. Sharip

Introduction

Proctocolectomy is a curative treatment for medically refractory Ulcerative Colitis (UC). However, a significant number of patients prefer to have continuity of their bowel and undergo a restorative ileal pouch–anal anastomosis (IPAA), after having had an initial subtotal colectomy. Unfortunately, pouchitis is a most common complication in patients with an IPAA: 81% of patients experience pouchitis in their lifetime, with 40% experiencing it in their first year of pouch formation [1]. Multiple factors associated with pouchitis include mutations in NOD2/CARD15, genetic polymorphisms of interleukin-1 receptor antagonists [2–4], tumour necrosis factor allele 2 and toll-like receptor 1 [5].

The cause of pouchitis is multifactorial, including abnormal immune reaction to newly formed IPAA, change in the vascularity and anatomy of the bowel, faecal stasis and many other postulated factors. Single-cell analysis of CD45+ haematopoietic cells in the colon and pouch of UC patients has also highlighted genetic pathways that might contribute to the inflammation and disease severity seen in this condition [6]. However, the aetiology of pouchitis remains poorly understood and this may explain why treatment of this condition has emerged as an important area of unmet research need in the field of IBD. The treatment currently ranges from probiotics, antibiotics, steroids and immunomodulators through to use of biologics. Unfortunately, 50% of patients develop recurrent pouchitis, and up to 20% develop chronic pouchitis. Typically, cases of medically refractory pouchitis have been treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF), vedolizumab and ustekinumab, but the evidence base for this approach has been very limited, typically comprising only case series and retrospective studies. Until recently, there had been no double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial supporting use of any therapeutic in pouchitis. Therefore, there has been significant interest in the study by Travis et al., reporting the first placebo-controlled trial for treatment of pouchitis, with use of vedolizumab. The findings from this trial help to provide evidence supporting the use of gut-selective vedolizumab for patients living with an IPAA.

Posted in ECCO News, Y-ECCO Literature Reviews, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 2, Y-ECCO

15June2023

Y-ECCO Literature Review: Joseph Sleiman

Joseph Sleiman

Ustekinumab improves health-related quality of life in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease: Results up to week 104 of the STARDUST trial

Panes J, Vermeire S, D’Haens GR, et al., STARDUST Study Group

United European Gastroenterol J 2023 May 4. doi: 10.1002/ueg2.12384. Online ahead of print.


Joseph Sleiman
© Joseph Sleiman

Introduction

The concept of treat to target (T2T) in Crohn’s Disease (CD) involves optimising therapy until a predetermined clinically relevant endpoint is met. In recent years, this endpoint has most commonly been a short-term biomarker response or endoscopic healing, but this has typically been juxtaposed with long-term patient reported outcomes (PROs) such as health-related quality of life (HRQoL) [1]. The international STRIDE-2 guidelines emphasise the need for monitoring at frequent intervals to ensure that treatment targets agreed at the commencement of any therapy are actually being achieved. One of the big unknowns of such strategies, requiring frequent monitoring, has been their cost-efficiency. However, concerns about cost have been balanced by arguments that adequate monitoring may allow earlier and more appropriate initiation of advanced therapies, which may then result in better longer-term outcomes [2].

STARDUST (NCT03107793) was a phase 3b, open-label, randomised controlled trial that compared ustekinumab (UST) T2T with standard-of-care (SoC) treatment strategies in adult patients with moderate to severe CD. The primary results from this trial have previously been reported, and it is notable that endoscopic and biomarker endpoints were not statistically different between the two treatment strategies [3]. However, it is also worth noting that while more patients in the T2T arm received q4w (4-weekly) dosing of UST (18.4% vs 0%), more patients in SoC received q8w (8-weekly) dosing (61.5% vs 38.8%). The original STARDUST trial included 440 patients, of whom 336 completed the first year of treatment and 323 (T2T, n=147; SoC, n=176) were subsequently enrolled to the long-term extension (LTE) period until week 104 (2-year mark). In this study, Panes et al. report on the HRQoL outcomes from patients in the LTE study from the STARDUST trial.

Posted in ECCO News, Y-ECCO Literature Reviews, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 2, Y-ECCO

15June2023

Y-ECCO Literature Review: Stephany Barreda

Stephany Barreda

Efficacy of filgotinib in patients with ulcerative colitis by line of therapy in the phase 2b/3 SELECTION trial

Dotan I, Feagan BG, Taliadouros V, et al.

J Crohns Colitis 2023 Mar 16. doi:10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjad039. Online ahead of print.


Stephany Barreda
© Stephany Barreda

Introduction

In recent years, there has been significant optimism in the field with the arrival of newer licensed therapies for patients living with IBD [1]. Alongside the welcome arrival of new therapeutics, there has also been an appreciation that many (but not all) patients may have preferences for oral medications [2]. In particular, targeting Janus kinases (JAKs) with oral small molecule treatments has proved to be a promising strategy. Indeed, tofacitinib, a pan-JAK inhibitor, was shown to have efficacy in patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), even in some instances where there had been loss of response or non-response to all prior licensed biologic options [3]. With growing understanding of the pathways involved in UC, preferential inhibition of JAK1 has been investigated in the field of IBD, including with the JAK1 inhibitor, filgotinib. This is a medication already licensed for some rheumatological conditions and it was recently assessed in the context of UC in the phase 2b/3 SELECTION trial – with the results having previously been published, and demonstrating superiority of filgotinib over placebo in UC [4]. In this current study, Dotan et al. assess efficacy of filgotinib based on prior treatment exposure and number of lines of therapy for instances of previous exposure to biologic therapy, based on a post-hoc analysis of data from the SELECTION trial. This study contributes to our understanding of how to sequence and position a new advanced therapy, in the context of a growing armamentarium of treatment options for patients living with UC.

Posted in ECCO News, Y-ECCO Literature Reviews, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 2, Y-ECCO

15June2023

Y-ECCO Members’ Address

Mark Samaan, Y-ECCO Chair

Mark Samaan
© ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

Although it still feels as though ECCO’23 has only just exited our rear-view mirrors, I’m sure many of you have moved onto preparing your abstract submissions and it’s worth remembering that the abstract submission window for ECCO’24 will soon be open! However, before getting started with that (there’s still plenty of time, after all) I would very much encourage you to take a look at the recently published IBD Communication Toolbox. Whatever type of ECCO Membership you hold, I can assure you that there’s something there for everyone.

Posted in ECCO News, Committee News, Volume 18, Issue 2, Y-ECCO