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IAS 2018: Advances, collaboration in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases
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BOSTON — Rheumatologists, gastroenterologists, dermatologists, immunologists and other health care providers who care for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases will gather at the Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit in Boston this weekend for a collaborative discussion of treatment strategies.
As the official media partner of the IAS Meeting, Healio will provide live coverage onsite at The Westin Boston Waterfront from Friday April 27 through Sunday April 29.
The meeting is “a unique symposium that brings together the specialties of rheumatology, dermatology and gastroenterology for didactic and interactive sessions focusing on inter-relationships between immune-mediated inflammatory disorders (IMIDs) affecting a spectrum of organ systems and specialties,” according to IAS senior advisor and Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease Peer Perspective Board member Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Endorsed by the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, the National Psoriasis Foundation, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, the Coalition of Rheumatology Educators and The Dermatologist, the IAS Meeting provides an inter-disciplinary forum for health care providers to discuss and debate emerging treatment strategies for IMIDs including psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and eosinophilic esophagitis. This year’s meeting will include more than 28 educational sessions organized along three tailored specialty tracks.
Collaboration among specialists on treating this “family of diseases” is crucial for the optimal care of patients with IMIDs, according to Healio Rheumatology Chief Medical Editor and IAS senior advisor Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
“These diseases have many overlapping features,” he said in an interview. “Clinically, inflammatory bowel disease, for example, may have skin involvement, joint involvement or accelerated cardiovascular disease. IMIDs also share immunologic pathways, leading to shared therapies like anti-TNFs, anti-IL-17s and beyond.”
Calabrese noted that autoimmune disease in the setting of cancer and immunotherapy will be a hot topic at this year’s meeting. He will be giving talks on giant cell arteritis and immune complications of cancer therapy, specifically PD-1 inhibitors. He also highlighted a presentation on advances in the biology of IL-6 by Stefan Rose-John, PhD, of Kiel University in Germany, as particularly noteworthy.
Echoing Calebrese, Jessica R. Allegretti, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, described the cross-specialty format of the IAS meeting as “brilliant.” She will be delivering a talk on the emerging role of fecal microbiota transplantation in IMIDs.
“Within the IBD community we rely on our dermatology and rheumatology colleagues so heavily because there’s so much overlap in a lot of the disorders we treat,” she said in an interview. “Understanding the challenges that our colleagues are dealing with, and identifying where the overlaps are is critical, so we can really start to work more as a team.”
Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease and Healio Rheumatology staff will report live on breaking news throughout the meeting. Visit and follow @HealioGastro and @HealioRheum on Twitter for the latest news emerging from #IAS2018. – by Adam Leitenberger
Reference:
Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit; April 27-29, 2018; Boston, Mass.
Disclosures: Allegretti reports she is a scientific advisor and receives research support from Finch Therapeutics. Calabrese reports he is a senior advisor for the IAS Meeting, chief medical editor of Healio Rheumatology, a consultant for Genentech, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Jansen and AbbVie; and is on the speakers bureau for Genentech, AbbVie and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Crescendo Bioscience. Hanauer is a senior advisor for the IAS Meeting, and reports financial relationships with AbbVie, Actavis, Allergan, Arena, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Celltrion, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Hospira, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Prometheus Laboratories, Atlantic, Receptos, Salix, Samsung Bioepis, Sanofi-Aventis, Seres Therapeutics, Shire, Takeda, Thetis, TiGenix, UCB Pharma, and VHsquared.