23 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS MAY 2016 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2016: EGHS-WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events Reflecting on a Memorable UEG Week 2015 Attracting more than 13,000 research-ers and clinicians, UEG Week 2015 in Barcelona, Spain was immensely popular and provided plenty of excit-ing new data to discuss and inspire! Among the most innovative new data were colonoscopic perfora-tion outcomes following endoscopic procedures in the largest European case series, how a novel method for studying pancreatic phenotypes of cystic fibrosis in vitro can help tailor drug screening, and the role of so-matic mutations in Toll-like receptor 4 signaling alterations in esophageal cancer. There was also the finding that maintenance treatment with ozanimod (a sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator) increases the likelihood of clinical remission versus placebo in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis and the discovery that segment length, low-grade dysplasia, and age at diag-nosis are predictive of progression to cancer in Barrett’s esophagus. There was promising news for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): for the first time, the anti-interleukin-12 antibody, ustekinumab, was shown to benefit those with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease failing conventional (not just anti-TNF-α) therapy. Results for another monoclonal antibody, vedoli-zumab, demonstrated the benefits of treatment for refractory disease in a real-life setting. New therapeutic options in neuro-gastroenterology and motility—areas that affect many patients but with few available treatments—also appear promising. Symptomatic benefits were demonstrated for the selec-tive 5-hydroxytryptamine4 (5-HT4) receptor agonist, prucalopride, and the peripherally-acting μ-opioid receptor antagonist, naloxegol. There was fascinating new evidence of a beneficial effect of a probiotic on comorbid depression and brain emotional reactivity in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Spe-cific microbes also appear to benefit patients with ulcerative colitis: certain bacterial signatures present after fecal microbiota transplantation are linked to a sustained response to treatment. UEG Week highlights Advances in the management of IBD Associate Professor Peter Lakatos Semmelweis University Budapest, Hungary Use of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, such as infliximab, has become widespread for IBD and a biosimilar infliximab was recently ap-proved for use in the European Union (EU). First-experience data presented at UEG Week 2015 showed that children with IBD who were switched from originator to biosimilar infliximab experienced no differences in adverse events, providing reassurance to pa-tients and clinicians (Abstract OP096). For many patients, IBD involves phases of treatment, remission, and disease relapse. New hope for patients with refractory IBD arose from data showing significant clinical responses to the human monoclonal antibod-ies vedolizumab (Abstracts OP049, OP053 and OP054) and ustekinum-ab (Abstract LB5668). A current challenge is knowing how to man-age patients in sustained remission: should medical treatment be stopped? According to a retrospective analysis of patients with Crohn’s disease who stopped infliximab therapy after sustained remission under infliximab plus antimetabolites, almost 25% de-veloped tissue damage after stopping treatment and the vast majority had to restart therapy over the long term (Abstract OP093).
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