Falk Gastro Info 10/2024

Glickman D et al, Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2024;30(7):1055–61

Negative impact of cannabis use on clinical outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): In this large patient cohort, cannabis use was associated with several poor clinical outcomes including steroid and opioid use, emergency department visits and hospitalizations while IBD-related surgery and mortality was not affected.

Chalabi M et al, N Engl J Med. 2024;390(21):1949–58

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy in locally advanced mismatch repair-deficient colon cancer: Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab resulted in a pathologic response (≤ 10% residual tumor tissue) in 95% of cases and in a complete pathological response (0% viable tumor) in 68% of cases in this phase 2 trial.

Ratziu V et al, Hepatology. 2024;80(1):173–85

The analysis of paired liver biopsies using artificial intelligence is comparable to the analysis by experienced pathologists: For this study, paired liver biopsies that were obtained as part of a randomized clinical trial with semaglutide in patients with metabolic liver disease before the start of therapy and after 72 weeks were evaluated. An artificial intelligence specifically trained to analyze metabolic liver disease specimen showed a comparable result to 2 independent pathologists regarding the primary end point. Interestingly, through continuous scoring, artificial intelligence was able to detect antifibrotic effects that were not detectable through conventional histopathological assessment.

Musto JA et al, Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024;22(8):1646–56.e2

Early liver transplantation for alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is associated with good long-term survival: In this study, the long-term survival and alcohol consumption of patients who underwent liver transplantation for ALD without alcohol abstinence and those who were transplanted after 6 months of alcohol abstinence as well as people who were transplanted for another indication (not alcohol-related) were examined. Although patients who had not abstained from alcohol prior to transplantation were more likely to relapse into harmful alcohol consumption patterns, long-term survival was better than for patients who were transplanted due to non-alcohol-related liver disease and comparable to that of people who had abstained from alcohol for 6 months before transplantation.

Raju SA et al, Gut. 2024;73(7):1124–30

New entity of adult ultra-short celiac disease: In this first multicenter cohort study, patients with celiac disease restricted to the duodenal bulb were younger at diagnosis but had a similar symptomatic burden and response to gluten-free diet as compared to those with “conventional” celiac disease. These findings endorse the recommendation of biopsy sampling of the duodenal bulb as part of the diagnostic work-up for celiac disease.

Peyrin-Biroulet L et al, N Engl J Med. 2024;391(3):213–23

Ustekinumab versus risankizumab for Crohn’s disease: Risankizumab was non-inferior to ustekinumab in achieving clinical remission after 24 weeks in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease following failure of anti-TNF antibodies in this open-label head-to-head trial (SEQUENCE). However, risankizumab was significantly superior with respect to endoscopic remission after 48 weeks.