Can Crohns disease lead to colon cancer?

[Esraa]

hi everyone,

i've been stressed out lately... after randomly reading in some website that the disease leads to cancer!... my doctor never told me that... i just feel depressed after knowing this info..
does any of you know some one that got cancer from the disease?

 

[Rossy]

I think its very rare for this to happen with CD, however people without CD do get colon cancer. However with UC there is a significant increase depending on severity and duration. I've been told this by my GI, yikes.

 

[Crohn's 35]

Yes it is rare!!! If it runs in your family (cancer) you have a higher chance, but as a whole it is still rare. The more flares you have and let them get away from you , the incidence can be a bit higher. Dont believe everything you read on the internet. You always have find the source and follow the money.... ugh :yfaint:

 

[archie]

very rare but the one positive is that crohns patients tend to get their bowel looked at more regularly than non crohns people therefore anything nasty lurking gets picked up earlier, however don't stress it is very unlikely, just know whats normal for you and any deviation from this get it checked, crohns patient tend to be less embarrassed to go to the doc with symptoms as we're used to dealing with these sort of things which is a good thing!! yeh crohn's patients rock!!

 

[PsychoJane]

It is a pretty much accepted fact by the scientific community. The incidence of colon cancer and small bowel cancer is higher in our group than in the population not suffering from crohn/UC. There is a lot of factors that come in line though, certain countries found that there was no worse incidence while other had like, north america and UK says its more frequent while other european studies has shown that the risk was the same. We can therefore suppose there are lifestyle, food and such that comes in list not only CD. There are more risks of developing colon cancer when its colonic involvement of the disease, patients with small bowel CD have increased risks of small bowel cancer too.
If my memory is good I believe there is a fivefold overall relative risk, but then again, the lenght of the disease is implied, the severity of the inflammation comes in line, the maintenance treatment too, so there is a lot to consider. I don't know if it may reassure you but there is up to a 25fold increase risk of lung cancer in smokers, use of sun tanbeds doubles the risk of skin cancers. I mean, yes, the rates are more important, but it is less frequent than other cancers related to bad habits.

It's also important to remember that we get screened way more often than the average Joe and hence, as for any other cancers' type, early diagnosis give great advantage to the patient. Also, it's not because the risk is increased that we all end up suffering from cancer.

 

[Misty-Eyed]

I think your chances of getting it are effected by several factors. These include, genetics, where your crohn's in located (colon cancer is way more common than small bowel), how bad your crohn's is and how long you've had it.

as everyone has said though, with crohn's you are screened more often. One of the reasons I had my whole colon removed was because of my risk of colon cancer. I've had crohn's for a long time purely in my colon and I was unable to have my colon looked at for cancer as I had bad strictures.

I think the words of my surgeon were 'It's unlikely that you'll get cancer but it is definitely is a possibility despite you're young age as I've seen it.' And yes, one of our fellow amazingly good friend on here got cancer from crohn's so I know it can happen. At least now I know I won't get it as I no longer have a colon! whhooopp!

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you. If you've not had crohn's long and get regular scopes then I'm pretty certain you'll be fine. Especially if you have crohn's in your small bowel.

 

[JMC]

Think of it like this, the biggest risk with bowel cancer is late diagnosis - it is one of the cancers that can be cured through surgical or medical treatment, but only if you catch it early. As a Crohn's patient, you have an elevated risk of bowel cancer, but you are also acutely aware of the health of your bowels, regularly talking to doctors and likely to have had a colonoscopy in the last few years. In other words, you have a higher chance of getting bowel cancer, but you also have a better than average chance of it being found early and being cured.

 

[braveheart]

Unfortunately we have a higher risk of colon cancer than the rest of the population.
But this does not mean we are going to have it.

 

[LindaS]

If your Crohn's is in the large intestine, rectum or anus, you have a very slightly higher risk of getting colon cancer. However, like others have said, colon cancer is very curable if it is detected early. Since as a Crohn's patient, you get more often colonoscopies, you are more aware of changes in your bowel, etc., even if you were to get it, you'd very likely end up beating it. Colon cancer is a slow growing cancer, and can take years to go from a very small thing to a full blown, metastasized cancer.

I also wonder if the more frequent colonoscopies are the reason for the elevated risk of colon cancer. We (CD patients) find out about the cancer before other things can kill us.

 

[KWalker]

See, as much as I understand all of this, part of me doesn't worry about this. It seems like these days getting out of bed causes cancer. If I go check my mail I could get skin cancer from the sun, if I go for a walk where somebody smoked an hour ago I could get cancer. I think they're just trying to cover their bases these days. Everything causes cancer!

The way I look at it, if you're going to get cancer, it's going to happen. My dad died of brain cancer too so pretty much between that heightened chance, and having crohns in the large intestine (we think) I'm pretty much bound to get it by their logic.

 

[Neko76]

I haven't actually looked up the exact stats, but I was diagnosed with rectal/small bowel cancer (waiting for pathology reports for exact diagnosis, but the tumour was at the junction of my resection made up of small bowel inserted into rectum) in August and my Doctors (3 seperate specialists) all agree that it is most likely as a result of my crohn's since the tumour developed at the site where my disease was most active and I was in a flare for about 8 month's prior to diagnosis. There is also no cancer in my family, I'm only 35 etc... But like a lot of the guys have said in previous posts, we get checked often so things are likely to get caught early. I just had my surgery to remove the tumour and surrounding tissue which left me with a permanent ileostomy and a partial removal of the back of my vagina and reconstruction (13 hrs!!!). The good news is being early stages they're pretty sure that surgery got it all and I won't have to do chemo. I would suggest not worrying about something that you have no real control over. I'm still here, potentially cancer-free and doing well..... now I'm just looking forward to xmas with my husband and kids. Oh yeah I was diagnosed at 28 weeks of pregnancy so I also have a 3 month old to look after when I get home from the hosp!!! Lol.

Cheers.

Kat

 

[PsychoJane]

Wow Neko that's a serious challenge to go through! You seem very positive about it all and it's probably the best key at healing and staying healthy after all! I hope you stay in a forever remission cause well, crohn is for sure enough of a problem to deal with on its own!
Best wishes
~J~

 

[xeridea]

So, the U.S. "moonshot" cancer cure program lifted off today. With a $125 million private endowment to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg-Kimmel Cancer Institute. Focus will be on immunotherapy-based cancer cures, and colon cancer is one of the handful of cancers on they'll be looking at.