Y-ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends, During the recent 20th Congress of ECCO, I found myself listening to David Bowie’s Low, a classic album written in Berlin well before the artist’s 35th birthday. So nearly 50 years on from that record, it was fitting that the finest work in IBD, including so many contributions from Y-ECCO Members, should be presented in the city. Of the 1534 accepted abstracts, 12 oral presentations, 52 digital oral presentations (DOPs) and 457 poster abstracts were delivered by Y-ECCO Members – over a third of the content!

This issue's Interview Corner is dedicated to Fernando Magro, the current President-Elect of ECCO. Fernando Magro is a gastroenterologist and head of the Clinical Pharmacology Department at University Hospital São João in Porto, Portugal, where he also serves as a Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is a founding member of the Portuguese Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group and an active researcher focusing on the management, treatment and prognosis Gerhard has been a very active member at ECCO for many years and now he overtook the task to be the Chair for UR-CARE Steering Committee.

Wijnands and colleagues sought to develop and validate a dynamic prediction model for advanced colorectal neoplasia (aCRN), including high-grade dysplasia and CRC, in IBD patients.

Iacucci and colleagues explored the application of machine learning in diagnosing histological remission and predicting clinical outcomes in UC patients.

Lindsay and colleagues sought to conduct the ASTIClite trial, to investigate the safety and efficacy of HSCT with a reduced intensity (potentially safer) conditioning regimen and a more traditional (and potentially more achievable) primary endpoint.

As I will be stepping down as Y-ECCO Chair at the upcoming ECCO Congress in Berlin, I want to take this final “Member’s Address” as an opportunity to thank each of you for your commitment to our shared mission of supporting those living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Harry Sokol is a prominent gastroenterologist at Saint Antoine Hospital and Sorbonne Université and the President of the French Group of Faecal Microbiota Transplantation. In this edition of the ECCO Interview Corner, Professor Sokol shares his journey into gastroenterology, his pioneering work on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and the gut microbiome and his vision for the future research.

Subcutaneous Infliximab (CT-P13) as Maintenance Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: 2 Randomized Phase 3 Trials Hanauer SB, Sands BE, Schreiber S, et al. Gastroenterology 2024.

A biomarker-stratified comparison of top-down versus accelerated step-up treatment strategies for patients with newly-diagnosed Crohn’s disease (PROFILE): a multicentre, open-label randomised controlled trial Noor NM, Lee JC, Bond S, et al. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2024;9:415-427.

Continuous monitoring of CRP, IL-6, and calprotectin in Inflammatory Bowel Disease using a perspiration-based wearable device Shahub S, Kumar RM, Lin KC, et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis 2024 Mar 23; doi: 10.1093/ibd/izae054. Online ahead of print.

Dear Y-ECCO Friends, As we move into the final quarter of the year, this is the perfect time to reflect on our collective achievements and to set our sights on the exciting events that lie ahead.

Combination therapy with anti-TNF inhibitors (ATI) and immunomodulator (IMM) therapy remains an efficacious treatment strategy for disease control in moderate to severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This conclusion was largely based on the findings of landmark trials, SONIC and UC SUCCESS, which showed combination therapy to be far superior to monotherapy in achieving durable clinical and endoscopic remission in IBD [1, 2]...

The gut microbiota of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) may have a role in disease aetiology and course [1]. Patients with IBD often have dysbiotic microbiota, with lower microbial diversity and cell counts, with both absolute and relative abundance of commensal microorganisms [2, 3]. Conversely, during remission following anti-inflammatory therapy, the gut microbiota has been observed to shift to a more eubiosis-like composition [3–6]. Furthermore, lower proportions of taxa with pro-inflammatory properties and mucus-degrading bacteria, as well as higher proportions of short-chain

Adalimumab is an effective and safe treatment for Crohn’s Disease (CD). However, both patients and healthcare professionals may wish to mitigate medication exposure due to potential safety and economic concerns in the long term. Since a high relapse rate follows drug discontinuation, treatment de-escalation without actually stopping the medication may allow for decreasing drug exposure while maintaining efficacy. In two observational studies, de-escalation from a 2-week to a 3-week adalimumab dosing interval was successful in most of the patients, though reversal to a 2-week dosing interval...

Dear Y-ECCO Enthusiasts! Can you believe that it’s been only four months since the last ECCO Congress? I bet that many of you are already knee-deep in exciting research for ECCO 2025 in Berlin, so mark your calendars and keep an eye open for the abstract submission deadline. You can’t miss that, as we want to see your top-notch research! Maybe you are the next Y-ECCO Best Abstract awardee!

For this Y-ECCO Interview Corner we met with Shaji Sebastian, who is known to everyone as Seb, on the Friday of the ECCO Congress. Seb has had a long association with ECCO. He is the outgoing Chair of ClinCom and was elected as Treasurer of ECCO at this year’s General Assembly. He is a consultant in Hull in the North of England, having got there through a somewhat circuitous route, as we will hear...

The SONIC trial yielded seminal findings showing that the combination of infliximab and azathioprine is more effective than either treatment alone for the maintenance of remission in patients with Crohn’s Disease (CD) [1]. In recent years, despite the availability of an increasing number of biologics and small molecules to treat CD, a ceiling of therapeutic efficacy has been reached [2]. Therefore, there has been a resurgence of interest in whether this therapeutic ceiling “effect” can be overcome with new treatment combinations.

Despite an expanding therapeutic arsenal, a considerable proportion of patients with Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) fail to achieve or sustain therapeutic responses [1, 2]. Mechanisms contributing to this failure, particularly with respect to biologic therapy, are only partially understood [3]. Uncovering the mechanisms behind loss of response may help to enhance the efficacy of existing treatment options or to develop alternative options for the future.

Patients will often ask, “What causes Inflammatory Bowel Disease?” Frustratingly, we remain unable to answer this seemingly simple question, beyond the often-quoted paradigm that unknown environmental factors trigger inflammation in genetically susceptible individuals. Although our understanding of the immune response in IBD has reached phenomenally detailed levels of resolution, the nature and identity of the initial environmental triggers of IBD have continued to remain a mystery.

The Y-ECCO Science Workshop celebrated its 10th edition during the recent ECCO Congress in Stockholm. Held on February 21, 2024, the workshop invited young basic scientists to present and discuss their research with peers and senior opinion leaders. This year’s edition proved a tremendous success, inspiring Y-ECCO Members with a friendly yet intellectually stimulating atmosphere and encouraging them to broaden their knowledge and to prepare for more challenging research steps.