Ulcerative Colitis and Colorectal Cancer: Aneuploidy and Implications for Improved Screening
Year: 2012
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) have a significantly increased lifetime risk for the development of colorectal carcinomas. Ulcerative colitis can therefore be considered a bona fide premalignant condition. It is therefore recommended that patients with UC participate in surveillance programs to screen for early signs of malignancy. However, reliable endoscopic sampling and histopathological evaluation is difficult. The diagnostic dilemma is underlined by the fact that despite screening programs about half of the patients with an ulcerative colitis-associated carcinoma (UCC) are diagnosed at an already advanced tumor stage reflecting poor prognosis. For these reasons, it should be obvious that additional markers with high prognostic impact in the individual risk assessment are of high clinical demand. While genetic and genomic changes during carcinogenesis have been thoroughly studied in sporadic colorectal cancers, less is known about the development of UCCs. This chapter will therefore focus on the role of genomic instability during colitis-associated carcinogenesis and how ploidy assessment might help to improve individual risk stratification regarding imminent colorectal cancer risk and survival prognosis.
Source: InTech eBooks
DOI: 10.5772/26466
Authors: Jens K., Gert Auer, Thomas Ried, Uwe J.
Language: English
Subfield: Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1599222833