Ulcerative colitis is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory bowel disease and its incidence in Korea has rapidly increased over the past two decades. Since ulcerative colitis is associated with increased risk for colorectal cancer, annual or biannual colonoscopy with four quadrant random biopsies at every 10 cm segments has been recommended for surveillance of colitic cancer in patients with long standing left-sided or extensive colitis. Recent epidemiologic data and meta-analysis suggest that the increment of colorectal cancer risk in ulcerative colitis was not larger than that of previous studies. Moreover, in addition to the extent and duration of colitis, other risk factors such as family history of colorectal cancer, primary sclerosing cholangitis, stricture, pseudopolyps, and histologic severity of inflammation have been recognized. As a result, updated guidelines provide surveillance strategies adjusted to the individual patient's risk for colitic cancer. Regarding surveillance method, target biopsy under panchromoendoscopy is preferentially recommended rather than random biopsy.
Cholangitis, Sclerosing/complications ; Colitis, Ulcerative/*complications ; Colon/pathology ; Colorectal Neoplasms/epidemiology/*etiology ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/complications ; Polyps ; Risk Factors

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Colorectal adenomas that are > or =10 mm have villous histology or high-grade dysplasia, or that are associated with > or =3 adenomas are considered high-risk for metachronous advanced neoplasia. We evaluated the cumulative incidence of metachronous advanced neoplasia according to the total number of high-risk findings detected on baseline colonoscopy. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study performed in 862 patients who underwent removal of colorectal adenomas between 2005 and 2009. At least one surveillance colonoscopy had been conducted at Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of metachronous advanced neoplasia in patients with 0, 1, 2, and 3-4 high-risk findings at 1 year were 0.7%, 1.3%, 2.8%, and 8.0%; at 3 years, those were 5.9%, 11.9%, 15.5%, and 24.7%; and at 5 years, those were 8.5%, 18.7%, 26.3%, and 37.2%, respectively. In a multivariate model, the risk of metachronous advanced neoplasia was significantly higher for the multiple high-risk findings group when compared with the 0 high-risk findings group (1 high-risk (+): hazard ratio, 1.86 [95% confidence interval, 1.00-3.44]; 2 high-risk (+): 1.84 [0.88-3.84]; and 3-4 high-risk (+): 3.29 [1.54-7.01]; ptrend=0.020). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of overlapping multiple high-risk findings was associated with an increased risk of advanced neoplasia during surveillance.
Adenoma/epidemiology/*etiology/pathology ; Aged ; Colonic Polyps/complications/surgery ; *Colonoscopy ; Colorectal Neoplasms/epidemiology/*etiology/pathology ; Early Detection of Cancer/methods ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Grading ; Neoplasms, Second Primary/epidemiology/*etiology/pathology ; Population Surveillance/methods ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Time Factors ; Tumor Burden