Intangible costs and benefits of ulcerative colitis surveillance: a patient survey.

Purpose: Colonoscopic surveillance in ulcerative colitis has costs and benefits beyond cancer prevention, which might influence program efficacy. This study assesses the more intangible aspects of surveillance.

Method: A questionnaire was sent to all patients on the St.

Thirty-year analysis of a colonoscopic surveillance program for neoplasia in ulcerative colitis.

Background & Aims: The value of colonoscopic surveillance for neoplasia in long-standing extensive ulcerative colitis remains controversial. This study reports on prospectively collected data from a surveillance program over a 30-year period.

Methods: Data were obtained from the prospective surveillance database, medical records, colonoscopy, and histology reports.

A new prognostic staging system for rectal cancer.

Objective: To clarify the appropriateness of tumor "budding," a quantifiable histologic variable, as 1 parameter in the construction of a new prognostic grading system for rectal cancer.

Summary Background Data: Patient division according to an accurate prognostic prediction could enhance the effectiveness of postoperative adjuvant therapy and follow-up.

Patients And Methods: Tumor budding was defined as an isolated cancer cell or a cluster composed of fewer than 5 cells in the invasive frontal region, and was divided into 2 grades based on its number within a microscopic field of x250.

Most dysplasia in ulcerative colitis is visible at colonoscopy.

Background: Patients with long-standing extensive ulcerative colitis are at increased risk for colorectal carcinoma. Because most dysplasia is believed to be macroscopically invisible, recommended surveillance protocols include multiple non-targeted colonic biopsies. It was hypothesized by us that most dysplasia is actually colonoscopically visible.