The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 European Congress of Rheumatology Annual Meeting is about to take place in Vienna, Austria. From June 12-15, some of the world’s leading researchers and clinicians will convene to present and learn about data on some of the new and innovative treatments for people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) as well as to discuss how to use and optimize existing approaches.
Ahead of the Congress, Medscape Medical News asked the Congress Committee’s Scientific Programme Chair Caroline Ospelt, MD, PhD, and Abstract Chair Christian Dejaco, MD, PhD, MBA, to discuss some of their highlights of this year’s meeting.
From Bench to Bedside
“For me, the beauty at EULAR is really that you have the latest on basic research, how this can be translated in clinical trials, and then the last step would be how EULAR recommends it to be used in clinical practice,” Ospelt said in an interview. She is a professor of experimental rheumatology at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.
“So, if you go to EULAR continuously, you can actually follow the whole story of how novelty comes into clinical practice,” she added.
In a separate interview, Dejaco, a consultant rheumatologist and associate professor at the Medical University of Graz in Austria, said: “There are several new drug trials that are going to be presented.”
One of his highlights on the use of new drugs for the treatment of giant cell arteritis will be the phase 3 SELECT-GCA trial of the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor upadacitinib (LBA0001).
“It’s a trial that hopefully will lead to the approval of this drug in this indication,” Dejaco said.
Late-Breaking Abstracts
Ospelt noted: “We had a lot of good late-breaking abstracts this year.”
Some of these include:
Real-world data on the comparative effectiveness of five different classes of drugs used to treat psoriatic arthritis (PsA; LBA0002) The 16-week results of a phase 2b/3 study with the novel interleukin (IL)–17A inhibitor izokibep in people with PsA (LBA0005)Data from the COSPIRIT-JIA trial on the efficacy and safety of ixekizumab (Taltz) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (LBA0009)Phase 2 data on the safety and efficacy of the CD38-targeting monoclonal antibody daratumumab in systemic lupus erythematosus (LBA0007)Results of the phase 2 DAHLIAS study of the anti–neonatal Fc receptor monoclonal antibody nipocalimab in people with primary Sjögren disease (LBA0010) Safety and immunogenicity data from a phase 1 study of an active anti–IL-6 immunotherapy in people with knee osteoarthritis (LBA0011)
The latter is “really interesting,” Ospelt said. As of now, there is no approved treatment for osteoarthritis, and there is no immunotherapy, “so this would be the first.”
But it’s not just the late-breaker abstracts to look out for. Dejaco highlighted two abstracts that will be presented during the Abstract Plenary:
A phase 3 study of a new selective JAK1 inhibitor, SHR0302, in rheumatoid arthritis (OP0037)A multi-omics analysis and targeted gene-editing study in people with VEXAS syndrome, which causes inflammatory and hematologic changes (OP0073)
Of the latter he said, “this disease is still incompletely understood, and this abstract really helps to better understand the mechanisms underlying this disease.”
One to Watch: CAR T-Cell Therapy
Ospelt said that the scientific program is about 80% clinical and 20% basic science overall. However, more sessions are being held jointly because data are starting to move from the bench to bedside.
One of the basic science areas that has had “a real buzz” around it and is now producing results in the clinic is the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. In one of the first, and perhaps aptly titled What Is New, or WIN, sessions of the congress, Georg Schett, MD, vice president of research at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nüremberg in Germany, will discuss the use of CAR T-cell therapy for inflammatory RMDs. There are also multiple abstract presentations on this topic.
In-depth tissue analysis and prediction of treatment response is another interesting approach, Ospelt said. “I think that’s the way to go, that we come from the blood, we go into the tissue.” A “very nice” example of this approach will be presented during the Abstract Plenary session on Wednesday, June 12, looking at how synovial tissue macrophages may be able to give information on likely treatment response in treatment-naive rheumatoid arthritis (OP0062). There are also some further findings related to the tissue biopsy–driven treatment trial R4RA that are being presented at the meeting (OP0218, OP0242, and POS0351).
EULAR Highlighted Sessions
Among the highlighted sessions on the EULAR 2024 website is a session on axial involvement in PsA and spondyloarthritis (SpA).
“Axial involvement in psoriatic arthritis and peripheral involvement in axial spondyloarthritis is quite a hot topic at the moment,” Ospelt said. There are lots of questions: “How connected are they? How different are they? Do we need different treatment for axial involvement compared to peripheral involvement?”
Another EULAR highlighted session is the 75th anniversary of glucocorticoid treatment, during which Past President of EULAR and Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology Josef S. Smolen, MD, will overview the “past, present, and future” of glucocorticoids in RMDs. Consultant rheumatologist Frank Buttgereit, MD, from the German Rheumatism Research Center in Berlin, will discuss the practicalities of using these drugs in clinical practice.
Dejaco noted: “Glucocorticoids have been one of the most important treatments for a very long time, and they’re still the most important treatment for the acute treatment of systemic inflammatory diseases.”
For a long time, there was no alternative to using steroids, he added, but steroid-sparing options now exist, and there will be data presented on new type of drug that could potentially be used to control cortisol levels in the body (OP0335).
Recommendations and More
Ospelt and Dejaco both pointed out other sessions that are likely to be very popular, such as the first and second EULAR Recommendations sessions, a session on rheumatoid arthritis prevention, as well as the many presentations and sessions on digital health and nonpharmacologic interventions such as exercise.
With over 5242 submitted abstracts, there is going to be no shortage of data being presented at EULAR 2024. Alongside the traditional abstract submission categories, this year there is a new clinical case reports category.
“We had about 578 submissions for that category,” Dejaco said. There were 3315 abstracts submitted for the clinical research category, 812 for the basic and translational research category, 283 from health professionals in rheumatology, 152 from patient groups, and 102 in the field of pediatric rheumatology.
Join in On-Site, Watch on Demand
EULAR 2024 reverts to an on-site–only meeting this year. Some of the more light-hearted yet educational elements of the program for those attending include the second edition of the EMEUNET Rheumatology Quiz and, new for this year, two escape rooms. These rooms will provide an interactive experience where small teams will have to solve rheumatologic conundrums in order to escape the room within the hour, Dejaco explained. There will also be a morning run on Friday, June 14. “It’s not a race, it’s simply to meet and run together,” Dejaco said.
But if you cannot make the Congress in person, the EULAR 2024 Livestream will be broadcasting throughout the congress. Anyone registered by June 30 will have on-demand access to the recorded content from June 17 until December 31, 2024.
Abstracts for the meeting will be published as a supplement to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the official journal of EULAR.
Ospelt reports no relevant financial relationships. Dejaco has received consulting/speaker’s fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Sparrow, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Galapagos, and Sanofi.
Sara Freeman is a medical journalist and writer based in London, UK. She is a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News, Medscape News UK, and other specialist healthcare media outlets.
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