Colorectal Cancer associated with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: a case series

BMC Pediatr. 2021 Nov 11;21(1):504. doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-02966-9.

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk of Colorectal cancer (CRC), and its most important risk factors are the duration and extent of the disease. Pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease has a tendency for a more extensive, more severe, and longer predicted disease duration than adult-onset inflammatory bowel disease. This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics of patients with CRC related to pediatric-onset IBD and consider the appropriateness of current surveillance endoscopy recommendations for the detection of premalignant lesions and early-stage CRC.

Methods: We searched a research platform based on the SUPREME electronic medical record data-mining system to identify cases of colorectal malignancy in patients with pediatric IBD that presented between 2000 and 2020.

Results: During the follow-up, 4 (1.29 per 1000 person years) out of 443 patients with PIBD was diagnosed with CRC. The median age at diagnosis of CRC was 18.5 (range: 15-24) years, and the median period from diagnosis of IBD to CRC was 9.42 (range: 0.44-11.96) years. The sigmoid colon was the most frequent location of CRC (in 3 of the 4 cases). Adenocarcinoma was the most common histological type (in 2 of the 4 cases).

Conclusions: Patients with pediatric-onset IBD exhibited a much shorter disease duration than that of adult-onset IBD at the time of diagnosis of CRC, suggesting that surveillance endoscopy for the detection of precancerous lesions and early-stage cancer should be initiated earlier in pediatric patients than in adult patients.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Crohn’s disease; Pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease; Surveillance endoscopy; Ulcerative colitis.

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Colitis, Ulcerative*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / complications
  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / epidemiology
  • Crohn Disease* / complications
  • Crohn Disease* / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* / complications
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* / diagnosis
  • Risk Factors