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PHILADELPHIA -- This weekend more than 5,000 gastroenterologists and other professionals will gather here for the 83rd (ACG) to hear the latest clinical research and science from the multifaceted field of gastroenterology.
Pre-meeting courses on Friday will focus on pharmacology, endoscopy, and practice management, and the annual postgraduate course will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
The highlight of Monday morning will be the presidential plenary sessions, which feature the top scientific presentations, according to Seth A. Gross, MD, of NYU Langone Medical Center, who chairs the ACG Educational Affairs Committee.
Topics included in these plenary sessions include exposure of patients with celiac disease to gluten contamination with restaurant food, a low FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols) diet for fecal incontinence, and prediction of response to vedolizumab (Entyvio) in Crohn's disease. Additional presentations will address the use of the selective S1P receptor modulator etrasimod and the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib for ulcerative colitis and immunotherapy-induced liver injury.
Plenary sessions on Tuesday will feature presentations on acute pancreatitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and the rising rates of obesity-related gastrointestinal cancers. There also will be discussions on colorectal cancer prevention and challenges in the management of viral hepatitis. A late-breaking abstract on Tuesday afternoon, presented by Bruce Sands, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, will report on the results of a trial of ustekinumab (Stelara) for induction of remission in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.
Other presentations sure to generate excitement include the use of artificial intelligence for the detection of colon polyps and a video session on the use of a robotic endoscopy platform for removing colon lesions. "This is a step forward in terms of procedural-based techniques we can use in gastrointestinal endoscopy similar to what surgeons are doing on a regular basis," Gross told MedPage Today.
"What's really nice about this meeting is that it's very practical, so what physicians see at the different symposiums and sessions are things they could readily go back home and implement in their practices to offer better quality care and outcomes for their patients," he said in an interview.
There also will be a series of featured lectures, which will include "Translational approaches to common GI diseases ... Thinking out of the box ... the future is now!" given by David A. Johnson, MD, of Eastern Virginia School of Medicine; "What causes functional GI disorders? The latest data and insights," by Nicholas J. Talley, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic; and "Fake news and alternative facts on personalized medicine in IBD," by Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, of the University of Chicago.
From Sunday through Tuesday there also will be a vast array of posters, featuring "Poster rounds with the experts." Each poster leader will choose the best poster presentation in their section, which should lead to a higher level of engagement with the science for presenters and attendees, Gross said.