Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2024; 30(13): 1801-1809
Published online Apr 7, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i13.1801
Disease clearance in ulcerative colitis: A new therapeutic target for the future
Syed Adeel Hassan, Neeraj Kapur, Fahad Sheikh, Anam Fahad, Somia Jamal
Syed Adeel Hassan, Neeraj Kapur, Division of Digestive Disease and Nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, United States
Fahad Sheikh, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY 10461, United States
Anam Fahad, Division of Primary Care, Essen Healthcare, New York, NY 10457, United States
Somia Jamal, Department of Internal Medicine, Karachi Medical and Dental College, Karachi 74700, Sindh, Pakistan
Author contributions: Hassan SA, Kapur N designed the overall content of the study; Hassan SA, Kapur N, Sheikh F, and Fahad A contributed to the writing of the manuscript; Sheikh F and Fahad A contributed to the literature review; Jamal S contributed to the generation of manuscript figure and literature review. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors of this manuscript do not have any conflict-of-interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Syed Adeel Hassan, MBBS, MD, Research Scientist, Division of Digestive Disease and Nutrition, University of Kentucky, 800 Rose Street, Lexington, KY 40536, United States. doc.syed92@gmail.com
Received: January 6, 2024
Peer-review started: January 6, 2024
First decision: February 6, 2024
Revised: February 16, 2024
Accepted: March 19, 2024
Article in press: March 19, 2024
Published online: April 7, 2024
Core Tip

Core Tip: Clinical management of ulcerative colitis is guided by a combination of clinical and endoscopic measures, but histologic healing is undervalued. The current definition of disease remission is insufficient due to discrepancies in outcomes. Disease clearance (DC) is a novel emerging composite outcome defined as the simultaneous attainment of clinical, endoscopic and histologic remission. The risk of disease relapse, hospitalization and surgery is significantly lower in patients who achieve DC. It provides superior optimal disease control in the short term. Large prospective studies are needed to determine the cost effectiveness, risk-benefit ratio and impact on long-term outcomes.