00:00:00: Hi and welcome, everyone.

00:00:01: My name is Johann Schattenbeck.

00:00:02: I'm here with you at the UAG podcast to recap the recent UAG week in Berlin.

00:00:08: I'm joined by Caroline Schneider.

00:00:10: Hi, Caroline.

00:00:11: Hi.

00:00:11: Thanks for having me today.

00:00:12: Of course.

00:00:13: Great to have you here.

00:00:14: I wanted to kick us off and start with some personal recap of UEG Week, which was very special for me, shadowing Julia Mayela in her last UEG Week as the chair of the scientific committee and in the role as incoming chair and the responsibilities that go with it, designing that.

00:00:34: I was very open ears and open eyes.

00:00:36: I think they did a great job.

00:00:37: I'm really looking forward to next year's to come.

00:00:40: And I think that's the goal here of today, just to have a little recap also with your personal impression, Karol.

00:00:45: Maybe you can share that with us quickly.

00:00:47: And then I think we've seen a couple of abstracts we wanted to highlight and maybe discuss how they could change our practice.

00:00:53: Yeah, for me, this year's UUG was really an amazing experience.

00:00:57: I was selected also as one of the rising stars.

00:01:01: Congratulations!

00:01:02: Yeah, thank you.

00:01:02: So for me, it was really a unique experience and I made so many new contacts, presented our research and I think UEG is really the place to be and I'm already looking forward to next year.

00:01:15: Very exciting and you are part of the scientific committee, so you will be responsible for drafting the HPB program, which is one of the big sessions or groups we have at UEG.

00:01:26: If you think back of this year's week, I think an abstract present by Andreas Kremer actually received the top abstract price that came out of the HPB field.

00:01:34: And I know you selected that as part of the committee.

00:01:38: How did you see that study?

00:01:39: Yes, so I think this is really one of the highlights of the Congress.

00:01:44: So Andreas Kremer presented Linerik Sibat significantly improves cholestatic pruritus in primary biliary cholangitis.

00:01:52: And this is a result of really a pivotal phase three trial.

00:01:57: And the trial is called the Glyston trial.

00:02:00: And what they did was really a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled studies in patients with PBC.

00:02:08: And the primary endpoint was the change in the itching over twenty-four weeks.

00:02:13: And really after twenty-four weeks, they saw that the pruritus was down four points.

00:02:20: compared to only two point eight with placebo.

00:02:23: And this is really one of these trials that we want to have more of at UAG to really have like a phase three trial.

00:02:31: Thank you.

00:02:32: I agree.

00:02:32: I think it's a good example of how a large international well conducted prospective regulatory trial is presented at UAG and the aspects of quality of life for patients, particularly with cholestatic liver disease.

00:02:44: But you know, in general with all GI diseases is very important.

00:02:48: for us as clinicians, and it's nice to see those studies read out here.

00:02:52: I agree that this was a well-deserved price for Andreas.

00:02:56: There's a lot of data shown on Masldea.

00:02:58: I was involved in some of them.

00:03:00: So if I just rethink, I want to summarize two abstracts briefly.

00:03:04: One was on, likewise, a phase two B study.

00:03:07: So well-controlled, prospectively constructed study using Pygosophermin.

00:03:12: Now, that's an FGF-I analog.

00:03:14: And I think that class of drug will see more off in the upcoming years in treating fibrotic liver disease, mostly metabolic fibrotic liver disease.

00:03:23: In that study, I presented data on patients with pre-serosis, and you could see improvement in liver histology.

00:03:30: The excitement comes from data that has been released since then, and press release is that even serosis seems to be regressing.

00:03:36: Now, those all secondary analysis, we don't have final data from large prospective trials on that yet, but I think it's something to be on the lookout for on the next years.

00:03:46: Yes, and I was attending also a session on the future of masal and mesh therapies.

00:03:50: And I think this is really one of the up and coming fields.

00:03:54: And next to ResmetiROM and GFP-I analog, there are so many new things to come.

00:03:59: So I'm looking forward to next year.

00:04:01: And one abstract that I wanted to highlight also in the same field was ResmetiROM effects.

00:04:07: on Mesh with liver fibrosis in patients with genetic risk alleles.

00:04:12: And what I found really interesting is that resmetiolone was useful despite patients having PNPLA-III mutations.

00:04:20: And I think this is really what we want to see in precision medicine in the future.

00:04:25: Great.

00:04:25: Yeah, there's been a lot of stuff around Masalina.

00:04:27: I agree, UEG will clearly be a field where metabolism and metabolic disease are going to be discussed further.

00:04:33: But let's look briefly at the bilirary and pancreatic field too.

00:04:37: In the preparation of this podcast, we briefly revisited the abstract.

00:04:40: There was one on antibiotics that reduced post-IRCP colonitis.

00:04:44: I think that's relevant to our everyday clinics.

00:04:47: I remind my residents that, in particular in patients that have pre-affected bilirary systems.

00:04:54: There's a high rate of post-interventional colonitis and the prophylactic antibiotics clearly support and shorten hospital stays and reduce the burden of disease.

00:05:03: So I found that was interesting just to see it from the clinical perspective.

00:05:09: And then there was a study the liquid biopsy story.

00:05:11: And I can't see it, but from the top of my head, I recall this liquid biopsy is something where we've seen some studies over the last years, but this is, of course, something that recapitulated it and used NGS, so high-end technology to characterize the lesions and predicting outcomes.

00:05:27: If I recall it correctly from the top of my head, so I found this was also new technologies, relevant topics, very interesting for the field.

00:05:36: I'm not sure if you have something to add.

00:05:38: Yes, because I think it's an abstract of Michavier Randes Garbaio from Spain, where they could really show in nineteen CCA and nine pancreatic ductile adenocarcinoma that this new technology of next generation sequencing based self-re-DNA analysis, which really is the novel technology for the liquid biopsy of the bio, was able in all patients with mutations to identify them, rather than only sixteen out of the nineteen patients were identified in the tissue.

00:06:10: So I think this is really a technology where we will hear more of in the future.

00:06:14: Great.

00:06:15: And I think it also shows that these technologies are emerging in clinics and will eventually be able to, right now, it's research.

00:06:24: but use them and have scalable technologies for future applications.

00:06:28: And

00:06:28: this also shows we have on the one side the large trials, but on the other side, really the precision medicine based on basic research that we are bringing to the clinic.

00:06:37: And this is also what UIG really highlights to bring all these people together so that really new technologies find a way into everyday clinical practice.

00:06:46: And I think this brings me then to the pancreas where we found one really interesting trial, the Zimba trial.

00:06:53: On one drug we all know, the Zimbastatin.

00:06:56: So, yes, statins have been used for a long time in cardiovascular disease, have been also debated for the liver, but now we see a really well-made trial in Zimbastatin in the prevention of recurrent pancreatitis.

00:07:09: And I think this was really interesting because it was a triplined randomized placebo-controlled trial in a parallel group of multi-center trials, really a large effort where they could show that and eighty-three patients from twenty-two centers in Spain and one from India.

00:07:26: And they were able to show that those patients receiving the Symbostatin had less recurrent episodes of accrued pancreatitis or even of accrued on chronic pancreatitis.

00:07:38: So I think this is really something to watch out for.

00:07:41: And yet another well-conducted, prospectively controlled clinical trial.

00:07:45: And I think, again, this is a little bit of the theme you've been mentioning at the beginning, which will be important for us moving forward at UEG too.

00:07:52: Great.

00:07:53: Now, I know there's been a dedicated session to highlight the best works and the best minds of UEG, and congratulations again.

00:08:00: You were awarded the Rising Star Award, maybe?

00:08:03: Summarize a little bit of your experience as a rising star.

00:08:06: And I know you met the other rising stars.

00:08:09: How did that go?

00:08:10: Yes, I think this is also something that is really unique to you to bring all the young minds together in really one atmosphere that creates also collaboration.

00:08:19: So for me, it was excellent to meet all the different other rising stars.

00:08:23: And one sessions took out in particular because there was one rising star sessions, including rising stars from Germany and Japan.

00:08:32: This was actually very nice because we were all reverting on Basel towards HCC and how we can use different techniques to prevent the onset of HCC.

00:08:43: And now we will meet again at other conferences and also start some collaborations.

00:08:49: And I think this is really showing what UG can do to bring people together to start some new research directions together.

00:08:57: Great, that sounds great.

00:08:58: And I know you work a lot with big data and modeling and artificial intelligence.

00:09:03: Was there something you saw in that field?

00:09:04: I know you presented some abstracts yourself, but maybe something... that comes back to your mind now that I asked you about it, where you thought this might have been worth big data.

00:09:14: I mean, UK Biobank is a typical one, but there's a lot of big data sets around.

00:09:18: Yes.

00:09:18: There was one interesting trial from Portugal where they used artificial intelligence for the comprehensive assessment of pancreatic lesions.

00:09:28: So we all know from the clinic how hard it sometimes is to then really validate which is.

00:09:34: solid or cystic lesions of the pancreas will develop.

00:09:37: into pancreatic cancer.

00:09:40: And they used endoscopic ultrasound and used artificial intelligence to help them process the pictures to make better predictions on whom to screen more.

00:09:51: And I think this is really one other option of artificial intelligence rather than just using it on tabular data.

00:09:57: We can also use it on the images to help us processing them better.

00:10:02: And they really had a stunning accuracy of nearly ninety percent.

00:10:05: So I think that's definitely something to watch out for in the next year.

00:10:09: Good.

00:10:10: So that combines the innovative technologies, but then also the data science behind it.

00:10:14: And the more we get these people pulled in into our realm of clinical medicine here, I think the more we might get increases in accuracy as you highlighted.

00:10:23: Of course, it's always important to have the best data for these type of technologies too.

00:10:27: Okay, well, this is great.

00:10:28: Maybe if I reflect on UEG- Twenty-Twenty-Five again, and what did I take from the excellent job Julia Meyerland-Seichem did in the previous years, is that we've seen an increasing amount of well-conducted prospective trials, some anchored as anchor presentations, but it's clearly a Congress that's through the entire bandwidth of GI disease, and we've discussed HPB predominantly.

00:10:53: And this recap offers high-quality trials that are Practice changing or maybe the future medicine.

00:10:59: I mentioned the FGF-I classes.

00:11:01: There is some repurposing of drugs like Simvastatin.

00:11:04: And we didn't discuss the lactate trials that were shown for pancreatitis, but that's something that's come into clinical guidelines already and reconfirming data shown here.

00:11:15: So I think it's really something that drives the field and determines our everyday activities.

00:11:20: And that's why I really liked the week this year.

00:11:22: Now, looking forward, I think for the same reasons, you should come visit.

00:11:26: I know you're going to be there, Caroline.

00:11:28: Yes, absolutely.

00:11:29: And I think I'm not saying too much when I promise that we will prepare an excellent program.

00:11:36: Barcelona, so a great city and a good reason to join and the science is going to be as exciting.

00:11:43: I'm also hoping to have many applicants as rising stars to follow in your footsteps, of course, and connect through UEG and really have the best science and brilliant minds visit the week to exchange and discuss there.

00:11:56: With that, not sure you have a last thought.

00:11:58: You want to share with the listeners, maybe?

00:12:00: No, just thanks for having me on board.

00:12:02: I think UEEG is always a great experience.

00:12:05: I'm already excited for next years.

00:12:07: And especially, I think I'm not saying too much if I want to say that we want to have more really well-made, also clinical trials, original trials presented on UEEG.

00:12:19: And I think this is something that we are really looking forward to.

00:12:24: Yes,

00:12:25: and of course the platform where you can read a broader audience.

00:12:27: So many good reasons to be there.

00:12:29: Thank you for your time.

00:12:30: It was a pleasure to record with you today.

00:12:33: It was great to have you listening in and hope to see you soon at UEG Week.

00:12:37: Thank you.

00:12:38: Thanks for having me.