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Colon Cancer Colon Cancer Treatment
People with IBD may benefit from drugs that can prevent colon cancer
People with long-term ulcerative colitis, and some types of Crohn's disease, face an increased risk of colon cancer. After a period of time with the disease, often about eight years, doctors recommend regular screenings for cancer or pre-cancerous changes. Even when only pre-cancerous changes are found, doctors today generally recommend removal of the colon. That's because those changes,called dysplasia, can quickly develop into cancer. It is also possible that cancer already exists. Researchers are looking into the possibility that certain medicines used to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease may have a cancer prevention effect. This "chemoprevention" has been observed with a drug used to treat a bile duct condition sometimes associated with inflammatory bowel disease. It is not known for sure if similar drugs, used for IBD alone, may also have a chemopreventive effect. But researchers believe this may be established in the future.
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