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CHICAGO -- Digestive Disease Week, starting here Saturday, is a "great mixture" of research and education that covers all aspects of the gastrointestinal tract, a key organizer said.
"It really is a four-society meeting" and each society has its own focus, said , of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who is chair of the council that organizes the event.
"But there is a lot of overlap, and that's one of the strengths of the meeting," which is the largest such gathering in the world with some 15,000 delegates expected, Elta told MedPage Today.
The four societies are the , the , the, and the
Together, they produce "just a great scientific meeting," Elta said, with hundreds of research reports on both basic and clinical science, as well as post-graduate courses and symposia, some aimed at members of individual societies and others intended to appeal to a broader audience.
One topic in which there is "tremendous interest," Elta said, is the role of the gut microbiome in disease and health -- a role that cuts across specialties.
For instance, Clostridium difficile infection is a well-known and fairly direct result of antibiotic-related disturbance of the gut microbiome, but the gut flora could also play roles in colorectal cancer, obesity, diabetes ,and other diseases.
Delegates to the meeting will get a glimpse at the current state of both clinical and basic research involving the gut flora, Elta said.
One of the major areas of "burgeoning" research, Elta said, is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. "They're lifelong diseases," she added. "Once you have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, you have them for life."
After years of limited treatment options, IBD is "sort of where hepatitis C was 5 years ago," she said, with many new drugs in the pipeline and approvals expected soon.
The sessions involving the endoscopists usually attract attention, Elta said -- "they always have new gadgets."
This year, delegates can learn about a new "steerable" capsule that its inventors hope can replace colonoscopy in some patients. The caveat, Elta said, is that so far it has only been tested in pigs.
And there is likely to be interest in studies looking at endoscopic bariatrics. Bariatric surgery has been shown to be effective in some patients in reducing obesity, she noted, but not all patients are eligible and there is, of course, the inherent risk involved in a surgical approach.
An endoscopic approach might be more acceptable to patients and would be less risky, although the long-term efficacy remains to be demonstrated, she said. "This whole area will have multiple studies," she added. "It's a huge topic."