The primary goal of the Educational Workshops organised by the ECCO Education Committee is to harmonise IBD practices within ECCO Country Members by presenting the practical use of the ECCO Guidelines on Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Pascal Juillerat  © ECCO

Dear ECCO Members,

I hope all of you were able to enjoy the short Easter break with your families and loved ones.

I also hope that you enjoyed the exciting scientific and educational programmes at the ECCO’22 Congress back in February. In case you missed or would like to re-watch some of the content, you can find all the recordings on our e-Library. Please note that access to this service and all of our wonderful content requires an up-to-date ECCO Membership.

A total of ten abstracts focusing on IBD genetics were accepted for presentation at the 17th Congress of ECCO. Four abstracts were presented in the scientific programme (OP) and two in digital oral presentation (DOP) sessions. The remaining four abstracts were presented as posters (eP). I describe here the most interesting findings from different domains of genetics in IBD.

A total of 72 abstracts focusing on IBD epidemiology were accepted for presentation at the 17^th Congress of ECCO. Among the best abstracts, seven were presented in digital oral presentation (DOP) sessions. The remaining 65 abstracts were presented as posters. Below, I summarise the most interesting studies, covering various fields in the epidemiology of IBD.

Dan Turner © Dan Turner

Academia can generate high-quality paediatric data during off-label use of drugs: the example of the prospective multicentre VEDOKIDS study

Remarkably, of the numerous biologics approved in adults with IBD, only infliximab and adalimumab have been approved in children. The long delay between approval of new drugs in adults versus children leads to their extensive off-label use, in the absence of appropriate dosing and safety data. Prospective paediatric data regarding vedolizumab are limited to a small phase 2 study (n=88; HUBBLE trial) focusing on pharmacokinetics. A paediatric phase 3 trial is underway but its completion is long overdue, also since vedolizumab is easily accessible in most countries without the constraints of study protocols. With that challenge in mind, once vedolizumab received approval in adults we initiated a prospective cohort study to explore the effectiveness, dosing and safety of vedolizumab in children. The VEDOKIDS study was sponsored by ECCO, The Paediatric Porto group of ESPGHAN and Takeda. Explicit demographic, clinical and safety data were prospectively recorded, and serum was collected for drug levels and stool for faecal calprotectin.

Edouard Louis © Edouard Louis

The SPARE clinical trial

A treat-to-target strategy and tight disease control may improve outcome in Crohn’s Disease (CD). However, this approach may necessitate long-term use of biological agents and immunosuppression. Combination therapy with anti-TNF and antimetabolite agents is now well established in this context. These drugs may be associated with long-term risks and elevated costs. It is important to establish whether treatment de-escalation, once deep remission has been achieved, is feasible and whether this strategy may improve safety profile and costs without jeopardising disease control.

Laurent Beaugerie © ECCO

The efficacy profile of IBD drugs is rapidly characterised by pivotal randomised controlled trials, but the safety profile of both old and new IBD drugs can only be established after years or decades of post-approval use. This is particularly true for relatively rare events, such as immunosuppression-related cancers. Clinical trials, meta-analyses and safety-dedicated registries are in general underpowered to evaluate the impact of IBD therapies on the risk of development of particular cancers. Data on clinical activity and phenotype of IBD are missing from nationwide administrative health databases, making it impossible to distinguish between the respective effects of IBD drugs and IBD activity on the risk of outcomes of particular interest, such as lymphomas.

SciCom announces the recent election of new member Isabelle Cleynen during the ECCO’22 Congress, with a mandate running from 2022 to 2025.

Sebastian Zeissig  © ECCO

Dear ECCO Friends and Members,

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we announce the brand new ECCO Young Researcher Award 2022. This new ECCO Prize will be awarded to outstanding young researchers in recognition of their excellent contributions to basic and clinical science in the field of IBD. With this prize, ECCO strives to further support the visibility of exceptional young talents in IBD, acknowledge their achievements in the field and facilitate their ongoing and future research.

Robin Dart © Robin Dart

Paulo Kotze is Adjunct Senior Professor of Surgery at the Colorectal Surgery Unit at Cajuru University Hospital in Curitiba, Brazil. Working as a colorectal surgeon, he manages IBD with both the scalpel and medical therapies. He has been a key figure in ECCO for many years, having been a committee member of both S-ECCO and, more recently, EduCom. In the absence of the ECCO Congress, I spoke with him over Zoom about global ECCO, being an iconoclastic surgeon and his past as a bassist in the Brazilian punk band the Pinheads.