Strategies for Detecting Colorectal Cancer in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Cochrane Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: Patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC) and colonic Crohn's disease (CD) have an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). We assess the effectiveness of endoscopic surveillance in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for diagnosing CRC and reducing CRC-related mortality.

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL were searched from inception to 19 September 2016.

Strategies for detecting colon cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis and colonic Crohn's disease have an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) compared with the general population. This review assessed the evidence that endoscopic surveillance may prolong life by allowing earlier detection of CRC or its pre-cursor lesion, dysplasia, in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of cancer surveillance programs for diagnosis of IBD-associated colorectal cancer and in reducing the mortality rate from colorectal cancer in patients with IBD.

The need for better preventative strategies for inflammatory bowel disease patients at risk of herpes zoster virus.

Background: Immunosuppressed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have an increased risk of herpes zoster virus (HZV) infection. The existing live-attenuated HZV vaccine is contraindicated in some of these patients and can only be used with caution in others.

Aims: To describe characteristics of IBD patients suffering HZV to enable implementation of risk mitigation strategies for those at highest risk.

Ipilimumab-induced toxicities and the gastroenterologist.

Ipilimumab has been shown to improve overall survival in patients with advanced melanoma. Ipilimumab acts through immune-modulation, and is recognized to cause potentially severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs) including dermatitis, colitis, thyroiditis, hypophysitis, and hepatitis. The acceptance of ipilimumab as a treatment for metastatic melanoma means patients will continue to be treated with this agent and gastroenterologists will be increasingly called upon to assist in managing severe autoimmune-related hepatitis and colitis.

Overgrowth of the indigenous gut microbiome and irritable bowel syndrome.

Culture-independent molecular techniques have demonstrated that the majority of the gut microbiota is uncultivable. Application of these molecular techniques to more accurately identify the indigenous gut microbiome has moved with great pace over recent years, leading to a substantial increase in understanding of gut microbial communities in both health and a number of disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Use of culture-independent molecular techniques already employed to characterise faecal and, to a lesser extent, colonic mucosal microbial populations in IBS, without reliance on insensitive, traditional microbiological culture techniques, has the potential to more accurately determine microbial composition in the small intestine of patients with this disorder, at least that occurring proximally and within reach of sampling.