Cancer in inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease, including both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease, are at increased risk for the development of gastrointestinal carcinoma, particularly colorectal adenocarcinoma. The current options to reduce this cancer risk include prophylactic colectomy, periodic endoscopic screening with colectomy performed in those patients found to have dysplastic colonic mucosa, or expectant management with no routine surveillance regimen. Despite the lack of data demonstrating effectiveness of surveillance colonoscopy, this approach has become the standard of care in most communities in the United States. Although it has fallen out of fashion in recent years, prophylactic colectomy remains a good option for reducing cancer risk for select patients with UC.