Risk of Cancer in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Pitfalls in Oncologic Therapy.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), represented by ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is an idiopathic condition caused by a dysregulated immune response to host intestinal microflora, leading to chronic relapsing intestinal inflammation. Individuals with IBD are more prone to die from several diseases, including cancer.

Methods: An extensive search was conducted of PubMed using the following medical subject heading-"inflammatory bowel disease" OR "Crohn's disease" OR "ulcerative colitis" AND "cancer.