Incidence of Dysplasia and Cancer in Colonic Strictures in IBD

Colorectal strictures in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can sometimes hide cancers. Strictures should systematically undergo biopsy, and strictures that are symptomatic, are located in the proximal colon, or occur in ulcerative colitis should be viewed with particular suspicion.

In the current multicenter study, researchers retrospectively assessed the risk for cancer or dysplasia in 248 patients with Crohn disease and 39 with ulcerative colitis who underwent resection for strictures. In all patients, preoperative biopsy specimens showed negative results for cancer and dysplasia.

The surgical pathology specimen demonstrated dysplasia (low-grade or high-grade) or cancer in six patients with Crohn disease (2.4%) and four patients with ulcerat…