Christian Maaser  ©  ECCO

GuiCom, together with various ECCO Members, is constantly working to bring the ECCO Guidelines up to date, thereby helping IBD physicians to treat their patients. The most recent project, the Diagnostic IBD Guideline, will set out what to do for the following purposes: initial diagnosis, evaluation of treatment response, assessment of the asymptomatic patient, clarification of postoperative situations and investigation of suspected complications. In addition, one chapter will deal with the various scoring systems and another with the technical details of the different methods.

Marieke Pierik  ©  ECCO

The Epidemiological Committee (EpiCom) of ECCO promotes epidemiological research within the field of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) across Europe. Population-based cohort studies on disease course and prognosis are of great interest for IBD epidemiology since in these cohorts a sample or all of the cases in a defined population are selected for longitudinal assessment of exposure–outcome relationships. 

Marc Ferrante  ©  ECCO

Following the success of the previous workshops, the Clinical Research Committee (ClinCom) of ECCO will run a sixth workshop in 2018.

During past years, endpoints in clinical trials for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have evolved substantially. Initially we mainly aimed for clinical remission, but it has become obvious that this is certainly insufficient to alter the natural history of the disease.

December 8, 2017

The 55^th ECCO Educational workshop was held in Krakow, Poland on December 8, 2017. The faculty included Patrick Van Rheenen (The Netherlands), Gábor Veres (Hungary), and Maciej Dadalski, Jarosław Kierkuś, Edyta Zagorowicz, Małgorzata Sladek, Edyta Szymanska, and Piotr Socha from the Poland.

November 17, 2017

The 54^th ECCO regional workshop was held in Cardiff on November 17, and it was a pleasure to welcome ECCO to the capital city of Wales, to a day of sunshine. The meeting followed on from a highly successful one day IBD Clinical Research Group meeting organised by the British Society of Gastroenterology, also held in Cardiff on the preceding day.

September 28, 2017

The 53^rd ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Bucharest, Romania on September 28, 2017.  The faculty comprised Giovanni Maconi (Italy) and Marc Ferrante (Belgium), as well as Liana Simona Gheorghe, Alexandru Lupu, Roxana Zaharie and Dan Ionut Gheonea from Romania.

September 15, 2017

The ECCO Workshop in Lithuania was organised in the quiet and beautiful city of Kaunas. Philip Hendy, from London, and Antonio López-Sanromán, from Madrid and an EduCom Officer, joined the local faculty (Limas Kupcinkas, Gediminas Giudelis and Laimas Jonaitis). 

Arie Levine © ECCO

Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) is an exciting and evolving methodology to transform the microbiota in microbiota-related diseases. The rationale behind FMT is "transfer of a healthy microbiota" from a donor to a patient with IBD, leading to a change in recipient microbiota towards that of a healthy donor. However, current methods are simplistic. Random healthy donors do not necessarily have an appropriate microbiota, and transferred microbiota may not colonise the recipient’s gut. Diet can rapidly degrade certain taxa or increase others, such that if the recipient diet is not appropriate, donor microbiota expansion may not occur or functionality may be impaired.

Salome de Pinho © ECCO

Aims of the research

The current therapeutic strategies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are limited by effectiveness and/or toxicity, and the selection of patients for therapy remains a major challenge. These clinical concerns highlight the unmet need to identify key mechanisms (molecular markers) capable of being selectively targeted with new and optimised therapies. Glycosylation is a major post-translational mechanism characterised by the addition of carbohydrate structures (glycans) to essentially all cells [1]. Evidence in other immune-mediated disorders has shown that protein N-glycosylation, particularly branched N-glycans, regulates T cell immune response and controls the threshold of T cell activation [2].

Bram Verstockt © ECCO

Aims of the research

The introduction of new non-anti-TNF agents such as the anti-adhesion and anti-IL-12/IL-23 molecules will increase the therapeutic armamentarium for patients with IBD. It is nevertheless anticipated that clinical response and adverse events will vary significantly between individuals. Therefore, we need predictors of efficacy and safety so that we can select the right drug at the right time for the right patient. Targeted strategies in patients with poor prognostic factors and head-to-head trials are currently lacking.