This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Eight developments in IBD research presented at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting
PHILADELPHIA — Improvements in the treatment and understanding of inflammatory bowel disease were featured prominently at the 2014 ACG Annual Scientific meeting. Here are eight key developments in IBD research highlighted in Healio Gastroenterology’s live ACG coverage.
Stephen B. Hanauer
1. ACG President addresses improved prevention, detection, treatment in IBD cancers
The incoming president of the American College of Gastroenterology discussed cancer in the setting of ulcerative colitis, including surveillance and screening, treatment-related associations and the impact of diagnostic radiation.
“We have made advances in the prevention of colon cancer in the setting of UC by surveying and screening for colon cancer,” Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, medical director of the Digestive Diseases Section at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said during the Emily Couric Lecture. Read more
2. Video: Yoga ‘underused’ in improving QOL for patients with IBD
Alycia Leiby, MD, pediatric gastroenterologist at Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Atlantic Health System, Morristown, NJ, and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, discusses preliminary results of her ongoing study on the efficacy of yoga to help manage symptoms and improve quality of life in pediatric patients with IBD. Watch
3. Expert offers insight into pharmacotherapy in IBD, individualized treatment
Charles N. Bernstein
In the American Journal of Gastroenterology Lecture, Charles N. Bernstein, MD, outlined the current state and future direction of invasive bowel disease treatment in which he looked broadly at pharmacotherapy in bowel disease and discussed the need to look at each patient’s individual situation from remission to opiate use to stress levels.
Bernstein, of the University of Manitoba and director of the IBD Clinical and Research center in Winnipeg, Canada, suggested that thiopurines may have a role in Crohn’s disease, and that combination therapy with immunomodulators and anti-TNF inhibitors has shown positive results. Read more
4. Video: Patients who lost response to vedolizumab achieved disease activity improvement with increased dose frequency
Marla C. Dubinsky, MD, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology, and co-director of the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NY, discusses the clinical impact of her open-label extension study involving IBD patients who achieved improved disease activity with increased vedolizumab dosing frequency. Watch
5. Budesonide foam with and without 5-ASA safely, effectively treated distal UC
Budesonide rectal foam, a second-generation corticosteroid, demonstrated safety and efficacy in the treatment of patients with ulcerative proctitis or ulcerative proctosigmoiditis, regardless of oral 5-ASA use at baseline, according to phase 3 trial data.
According to William J. Sandborn, MD, of the University of California San Diego, and colleagues, “[Budesonide foam] was generally well tolerated and provided a significant treatment benefit vs. placebo for mild-to-moderate, distal forms of UC, irrespective of baseline oral 5-ASA use.” Read more
6. Vedolizumab with, without corticosteroids, immunosuppressants comparably safe in IBD
Edward V. Loftus
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease who received vedolizumab monotherapy had similar infection adverse event and serious adverse event profiles compared with patients who received vedolizumab with concomitant corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressants.
According to Edward V. Loftus, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, “infectious AE and infectious SAE profiles in patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease were similar whether vedolizumab was used as monotherapy or with concomitant immunomodulators and/or corticosteroid therapy.” Read more
7. Video: Low vitamin D levels associated with worse disease activity, higher morbidity in IBD
Toufic A. Kabbani, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discusses the clinical impacts of his 5-year prospective study on the relationship between vitamin D levels and clinical status of inflammatory bowel disease.
“We found that subjects with low vitamin D levels required medications more often … compared to the normal vitamin D level group. In addition, subjects with low vitamin D levels had worse pain, had poorer QOL and utilized the health care system more often,” Kabbani said. Watch
8. NAFLD common in patients with IBD
Jason A. Dundulis
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, was prevalent among patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
“We were looking at patients with IBD and comparing those to a normal population looking specifically for the presence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” Jason A. Dundulis, MD, of the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Medicine, told Healio.com/Hepatology. “It has been a condition that we have traditionally not associated with IBD, presumably because these patients were largely underweight and relatively malnourished and as the population gets a little bit better control with newer medications that have been coming out, we’ve noticed that [NAFLD] has become more prevalent in this population.” Read more
For more coverage from the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting, visit the resource center here.