This year, available funding for ECCO Fellowships and Grants Programme (F&G) increased to 1.9 Million Euros for this year’s Call 2023 (to be awarded ECCO’24), this is the largest funding volume to date. With diverse funding streams for innovative research and international collaborations such as the Pioneer Award and the new Global Grant as well as those specifically for early career scientists, Dieticians and Nurses, the ECCO F&G Programme has really grown in the last five years.
The return of a physical ECCO Congress finally gave me the chance to interview people in person for ECCO News. So, after an early morning start, the outgoing Chair of Y-ECCO, Charlotte Hedin, and I sat down to talk about what led her into gastroenterology, the impact of moving country mid-career and the Y-ECCO Communication Toolbox, which has recently been made available on the ECCO e-Learning Platform.
Guselkumab plus golimumab combination therapy versus guselkumab or golimumab monotherapy in patients with ulcerative colitis (VEGA): A randomised, double-blind, controlled, phase 2, proof-of-concept trial
Despite a growing armamentarium of advanced therapies for Ulcerative Colitis (UC), fewer than 40% of patients maintain clinical remission at 12 months [1]. Combination therapy utilising dual biologic or small molecule agents can be considered in highly selected, medically refractory cases; however, robust data to support dual therapy in routine clinical practice are still lacking [2]. Inhibitors of TNF-α and IL-23 have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of UC [3,4]. Data emerging from animal studies have suggested that their use in combination reduces colitis synergistically and may be more efficacious than treatment with either monotherapy [5].
This randomised double-blinded controlled phase 2 trial, named the VEGA trial, was conducted across 54 sites internationally and aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with guselkumab (GUS), an IL-23 p19 antagonist, plus golimumab (GOL), a TNF-α inhibitor, compared with either monotherapy in UC.
Point-of-care intestinal ultrasound in IBD patients: Disease management and diagnostic yield in a real-world cohort and proposal of a point-of-care algorithm
Intestinal ultrasound (IUS) is an inexpensive, non-invasive, safe and repeatable, dynamic cross-sectional imaging technique for IBD. It has been demonstrated to be accurate and reliable both for initial diagnosis of IBD and for follow-up monitoring [1]. Huge advantages of IUS are that it does not need any prior preparation of the patient and provides a real-time result. IUS can be performed in various hospital settings, which makes it the only point-of-care (POC) imaging technique available today [2].
The impact of POC IUS on daily decision making and the evolution in its use over the years were evaluated in this retrospective study, which included two consecutive cohorts of IBD patients in a real-world outpatient setting. The first cohort of patients, included between January 2016 and July 2018, was compared with a second cohort collected between October 2019 and December 2019.
Withdrawal of infliximab or concomitant immunosuppressant therapy in patients with Crohn’s disease on combination therapy (SPARE): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial
Louis E, Resche-Rigon M, Laharie D, et al; GETAID and the SPARE-Biocycle research group
Therapeutic strategies for Crohn’s Disease have evolved over the past decade, with mounting evidence that achieving deep remission (defined as clinical, biochemical and endoscopic remission) is associated with better long-term outcomes [1, 2]. Combination therapy with infliximab and azathioprine has been shown to be superior to either infliximab or azathioprine monotherapy in achieving clinical remission and endoscopic healing in azathioprine-naive patients, thus supporting the paradigm of early disease management and the use of treatment combinations to increase treatment success [3]. Concerns regarding the implications of long-term combination therapy, such as infections and lymphoproliferative disorders, have provided the rationale for a formal clinical trial of treatment de-escalation.
The aim of this trial was to compare the relapse rate and the time spent in remission over 2 years between patients continuing combination therapy and those stopping infliximab or immunosuppressant therapy.
After two consecutive virtual events, the Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop was back with a face-to-face meeting, reaching its 9th edition on March 1, 2023, in Copenhagen.
This Workshop aims to involve young fellows in a fully comprehensive manner, giving them the opportunity to present relevant data that were submitted for the scientific programme and discuss their views with successful key opinion leaders in the field of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), with special focus on basic and translational research. All sessions open with a hot topic presented by an invited senior specialist, followed by excellent presentations by selected young researchers. The secret of the constant success of this initiative is the friendly atmosphere, which allows participating Y-ECCO Members to increase their knowledge while also preparing for more challenging stages.
I do hope you all enjoyed the ECCO Congress in Copenhagen and made the most of the opportunity to “get physical” again for the first time in too long! I’m sure many will agree that, although virtual conferencing has its positives, much of what makes ECCO such a special organisation to be part of can only be fully realised in person. The fact that this year’s meeting was the first in-person ECCO Congress since before the pandemic only added to the sense of excitement, and the meeting’s content did not disappoint. As is often the case, contributions from Y-ECCO Members made up a sizeable proportion of the original research presented: 58 oral presentations were selected to be presented by Y-ECCO Members and a total of ten Y-ECCO Members were awarded prizes. This again underscores the essential role played by Y-ECCO within ECCO, as a new generation of IBD experts are ushered in.
After two years of virtual meetings, the main goal of the 18th ECCO Congress, held in Copenhagen (March 1–4, 2023), was “Let’s get physical”. During this conference we enjoyed the face-to-face interaction, which provided a positive boost to the 8th H-ECCO Masterclass. The aim of our meeting was not only to discuss the histopathological aspects of Inflammatory Bowel Disease but also to demonstrate the interaction between the different specialisms, which reflects the multidisciplinary collaboration in our daily practice.
The 18th ECCO Congress and 12th S-ECCO IBD Masterclass provided many of us with the opportunity finally to meet in real life and delivered much new knowledge and numerous new insights. This year’s Masterclass was opened by Christianne Buskens, who in a very distinct manner showed us what kind of effect the pandemic and all virtual meetings have had on us by showing a picture from last year’s virtual meeting (we all looked terribly concerned and sad). This can be compared with a picture from this year’s meeting, where good old friends reunited to discuss IBD.
After a long hiatus, the 18th ECCO Congress finally took place in person and face-to-face, which was very exciting. The 8th D-ECCO Workshop was full, with attendees including not only dietitians but also a great mix of specialists from all around the world. There were three Workshop sessions, on “Food science: there is more than EEN for Crohn’s Disease”, “Practical and clinical advice for the IBD dietitian” and “Psychological aspects of dietary management in IBD”. Apart from these sessions, great discussions were hosted and participated in by D-ECCO Committee Members and external speakers, and the D-ECCO Grant and Travel Awards were handed out.
Robin Dart
Ann Driessen
Pär Myrelid
Chen Sarbagili Shabat