Does Colonoscopy Prevent Colon Cancer in IBD?

To evaluate the effectiveness of surveillance colonoscopy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), investigators retrospectively assessed the risk for colorectal cancer with and without recent colonoscopy in patients from two U.S. referral centers.

Of 6823 patients identified, 154 developed colorectal cancer during follow-up of at least 3 years, 2764 underwent a colonoscopy within a 6-to-36-month window before cancer diagnosis or end of follow-up, and 4059 did not undergo a colonoscopy within that time window.

In the colonoscopy group, 43 patients developed colorectal cancer (1.6%), and in the no-colonoscopy group, 111 patients developed colorectal cancer (2.7%; P=0.001). In multivariate analysis, the odds ratio for colorectal cance…