Does Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Increase My Risk of Colon Cancer?

There is an elevated risk of colon cancer with IBD but that risk is lower if patients stay on their medicine and inflammation is reduced. Learn more from Dr. Eugene Yen of NorthShore University HealthSystem about the risks of IBD and colon cancer.

Transcript

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Does Inflammatory Bowel Disease increase my risk of Colon Cancer? Yes, but we think that this risk is less than we previously thought,

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based on studies over 10 years ago. We used to tell our patients that after having 30 years of ulcerative colitis their risk of

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getting colon cancer was about 18%. I think the data nowadays is showing that that number is much lower and that may be due to a

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bunch of factors. One may be that we have better screening techniques and that our medicines are better. I tell most of my patients

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that the risk of getting cancer is lower, if they're on their medicines and they're not flaring. Because we know that inflammation is a risk factor for getting colon cancer. In addition, it's important

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to screen patients early as we know that even early stages of Colon