Cancer Biology or Ineffective Surveillance? A Multicentre Retrospective Analysis of Colitis-Associated Post-Colonoscopy Colorectal Cancers.

Background And Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] is associated with high rates of post-colonoscopy colorectal cancer [PCCRC], but further in-depth qualitative analyses are required to determine whether they result from inadequate surveillance or aggressive IBD cancer evolution.

Methods: All IBD patients who had a colorectal cancer [CRC] diagnosed between January 2015 and July 2019 and a recent [<4 years] surveillance colonoscopy at one of four English hospital trusts underwent root cause analyses as recommended by the World Endoscopy Organisation to identify plausible PCCRC causative factors.

Results: In total, 61% [n = 22/36] of the included IBD CRCs were PCCRCs.

Two-year real-world outcome data from a single tertiary centre shows reduced ustekinumab persistence in a non-bio-naïve Crohn's disease cohort with penetrating disease, -ostomies and sarcopenia.

Background: Ustekinumab was approved in 2016 for the treatment of moderate-severe Crohn's disease (CD). Clinical trials and real-world studies have suggested ustekinumab to be a safe and effective treatment; however, studies to date infrequently use imaging techniques to predict response to biologics in CD.

Objectives: We assessed the 2-year real-world effectiveness and safety of ustekinumab in a tertiary CD cohort with the use of novel imaging techniques.

Identifying key mechanisms leading to visual recognition errors for missed colorectal polyps using eye-tracking technology.

Background And Aim: Lack of visual recognition of colorectal polyps may lead to interval cancers. The mechanisms contributing to perceptual variation, particularly for subtle and advanced colorectal neoplasia, have scarcely been investigated. We aimed to evaluate visual recognition errors and provide novel mechanistic insights.

Performance of artificial intelligence for detection of subtle and advanced colorectal neoplasia.

Objectives: There is uncertainty regarding the efficacy of artificial intelligence (AI) software to detect advanced subtle neoplasia, particularly flat lesions and sessile serrated lesions (SSLs), due to low prevalence in testing datasets and prospective trials. This has been highlighted as a top research priority for the field.

Methods: An AI algorithm was evaluated on four video test datasets containing 173 polyps (35,114 polyp-positive frames and 634,988 polyp-negative frames) specifically enriched with flat lesions and SSLs, including a challenging dataset containing subtle advanced neoplasia.

Multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing standard and high resolution optical technologies in colorectal cancer screening.

Background And Objectives: The UK bowel cancer screening programme (BCSP) has been established for the early detection of colorectal cancer offering colonoscopy to patients screened positive by faecal occult blood tests. In this multisite, prospective, randomised controlled trial, we aimed to compare the performance of Standard Definition Olympus Lucera (SD-OL) with Scope Guide and the High Definition Pentax HiLine (HD-PHL).

Patients And Methods: Subjects undergoing a colonoscopy as part of the UK National BCSP at four UK sites were randomised to an endoscopy list run using either SD-OL or HD-PHL.

Current Practices in Ileal Pouch Surveillance for Patients With Ulcerative Colitis: A Multinational, Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background And Aims: There are no universally accepted guidelines regarding surveillance of ulcerative colitis [UC] patients after restorative proctocolectomy and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis [IPAA]. There also exists a lack of validated quality assurance standards for performing pouchoscopy. To better understand IPAA surveillance practices in the face of this clinical equipoise, we carried out a retrospective cohort study at five inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] referral centres.

Artificial intelligence and computer-aided diagnosis in colonoscopy: current evidence and future directions.

Computer-aided diagnosis offers a promising solution to reduce variation in colonoscopy performance. Pooled miss rates for polyps are as high as 22%, and associated interval colorectal cancers after colonoscopy are of concern. Optical biopsy, whereby in-vivo classification of polyps based on enhanced imaging replaces histopathology, has not been incorporated into routine practice because it is limited by interobserver variability and generally only meets accepted standards in expert settings.

A New Look at Familial Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the Ashkenazi Jewish Population.

Background And Aims: The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are particularly common among the Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) population. Population-specific estimates of familial risk are important for counseling; however, relatively small cohorts of AJ IBD patients have been analyzed for familial risk to date. This study aimed to recruit a new cohort of AJ IBD patients, mainly from the UK, to determine the familial occurrence of disease.

Evolutionary history of human colitis-associated colorectal cancer.

Objective: IBD confers an increased lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC), and colitis-associated CRC (CA-CRC) is molecularly distinct from sporadic CRC (S-CRC). Here we have dissected the evolutionary history of CA-CRC using multiregion sequencing.

Design: Exome sequencing was performed on fresh-frozen multiple regions of carcinoma, adjacent non-cancerous mucosa and blood from 12 patients with CA-CRC (n=55 exomes), and key variants were validated with orthogonal methods.

Incidental finding - the discovery of a bronchopulmonary foregut malformation through investigations for Crohn's disease.

Pulmonary sequestration (PMS) is a rare bronchopulmonary malformation. It has an incidence of between 0.15% to 1.

Monitoring Crohn's disease during anti-TNF-α therapy: validation of the magnetic resonance enterography global score (MEGS) against a combined clinical reference standard.

Objectives: To assess the ability of magnetic resonance enterography global score (MEGS) to characterise Crohn's disease (CD) response to anti-TNF-α therapy.

Methods: Thirty-six CD patients (median age 26 years, 20 males) commencing anti-TNF-α therapy with concomitant baseline MRI enterography (MRE) were identified retrospectively. Patients' clinical course was followed and correlated with subsequent MREs.

Changes in dynamic contrast-enhanced pharmacokinetic and diffusion-weighted imaging parameters reflect response to anti-TNF therapy in Crohn's disease.

Objective: To investigate the effect of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α antagonists on MRI dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) parameters in Crohn's disease (CD).

Methods: 42 patients with CD (median age 24 years; 22 females) commencing anti-TNF-α therapy with baseline and follow-up (median 51 weeks) 1.5-T MR enterography (MRE) were retrospectively identified.

Incidence and Severity of Prepouch Ileitis: A Distinct Disease Entity or a Manifestation of Refractory Pouchitis?

Background: Restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis is the operation of choice for patients with treatment-refractory ulcerative colitis. However, after this intervention, up to 50% of patients develop pouchitis. Moreover, a subgroup will also develop inflammation in the afferent ileum proximal to the pouch, a condition named prepouch ileitis (PI).

Mucosal transcriptomics implicates under expression of BRINP3 in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis.

Background: Mucosal abnormalities are potentially important in the primary pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC). We investigated the mucosal transcriptomic expression profiles of biopsies from patients with UC and healthy controls, taken from macroscopically noninflamed tissue from the terminal ileum and 3 colonic locations with the objective of identifying abnormal molecules that might be involved in disease development.

Methods: Whole-genome transcriptional analysis was performed on intestinal biopsies taken from 24 patients with UC, 26 healthy controls, and 14 patients with Crohn's disease.

Lipidomic profiling in Crohn's disease: abnormalities in phosphatidylinositols, with preservation of ceramide, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine composition.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory condition largely affecting the terminal ileum and large bowel. A contributing cause is the failure of an adequate acute inflammatory response as a result of impaired secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by macrophages. This defective secretion arises from aberrant vesicle trafficking, misdirecting the cytokines to lysosomal degradation.

Cytomegalovirus infection in ulcerative colitis: a prospective, comparative study on prevalence and diagnostic strategy.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been reported in ulcerative colitis (UC), especially in severe, steroid-refractory disease. However, its role in steroid-refractoriness remains unknown. Our goals were to evaluate the prevalence of CMV disease in UC, the best diagnostic strategy, and the influence of disease activity and/or treatment in its development.

Hospital admission is a relevant source of hepatitis C virus acquisition in Spain.

Background/aims: Isolated cases of acute hepatitis C, as well as hepatitis C outbreaks transmitted by health-care related procedures, have drawn attention to nosocomial transmission of HCV. The aim of this study was to investigate the current relevance of nosocomial HCV infection.

Methods: For this purpose, we performed a retrospective epidemiological analysis of all cases of acute hepatitis C diagnosed in 18 Spanish hospitals.

Outbreak of nosocomial hepatitis C virus infection resolved by genetic analysis of HCV RNA.

In July 2000, symptomatic acute hepatitis C was diagnosed in five patients who had attended the emergency room of a municipal hospital on the same day, about 6 weeks before. Investigation of the remaining 65 patients visited at the emergency room on that day disclosed that 8 patients had a positive anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) test and 4 of them had biochemical evidence of acute anicteric hepatitis. HCV RNA was detected in 12 of the 13 anti-HCV-positive patients.