Throughout September 2025, Takeda had the pleasure of organizing scientific evenings bringing together key experts in IBD from Belgium.

The VDZ-cdst scoring system has been developed and tested through post-hoc analyses using data from over 3,000 patients...

Disease clearance, response prediction and treatment persistence in uc

Clinical studies on the effectiveness of therapies for UC often use endpoints that include clinical or endoscopic remission, but histological remission is also increasingly reported. Achieving the combination of these endpoints in one and the same patient is called disease clearance (DC)1, but evidence on whether pursuing such strict treatment targets will result in a significant benefit to patients is currently lacking. In addition, it is important that patients can maintain their treatment outcomes for as long as possible.
During the past congresses, several abstracts were presented that are very relevant in the context of these questions. In this communication we would like to bring a selection of some abstracts in the spotlight.
 
 

Treating the right cd patient at the right time 

Crohn's disease is a progressive disease, and it is important to get patients into deep remission early in their disease course. One of the most important questions here is how quickly after diagnosis a patient should be treated with advanced therapy, if conventional therapy proves insufficient. At both UEGW 2024 and ECCO 2025, it was once again underlined that the answer to this question is undoubtedly "as soon as possible". However, we are also confronted with heterogeneity in clinical outcomes: even when treating patients early with advanced therapies, there is no one-size-fits-all solution1. There is therefore an increasing focus on personalizing treatments, with a strong focus on identifying strategies to predict a patient's likelihood of response.

Several abstracts were presented that are very relevant in the context of these questions. On this page, we would like to highlight some of them.

Our Shared Decision Making Tool incorporates the newest treatment options, providing a comprehensive overview of all available treatments to support you and your patients in the decision-making process. 

There is a growing need to shift from 'reactive' management driven by disease complications to 'proactive' care with the aim to prevent disease damages.

The VDZ-CDST scoring system has been developed and tested through post hoc analyses using data from over 2400 patients across multiple cohorts from studies conducted globally.

Presentation, divided in the 3 main topics prof D’Haens shared with us:

During the 25 min of podcast Prof G D'Haens, Amsterdam and Prof Bossuyt, Imelda, discuss 2 main topics