Colorectal cancer risk in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at increased risk to develop c olorectal cancer. The pathogenesis of both, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is still unknown, and cure is not possible. Therefore primary prev ention of colorectal cancer in these patients is of special interest Cancer risk of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease a highly dependent the; dur ation of disease, extent of inflammation in the large bowel and probably of the age at onset of the disease. Colorectal cancer in inflammatory bowel d isease results on the basis of the dysplasia-carcinoma sequence. In in mole cular carcinogenesis, different steps of cancer development have been ident ified. Those as well as the clinical appearance demonstrate, that differenc es between sporadic colorectal cancer and cancer in inflammatory bowel dise ase exist Surveillance, which consists of regular colonoscopy and biopsy ta king, is still controversial However; it represents the only realistic form of carcinoma prevention at the present time. This article summarizes our c urrent knowledge about pathogenesis and risk evaluation and proposes a surv eillance program.