Plain language summary - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes several conditions. The most common ones are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD).  UC causes inflammation and damage to the large bowel. CD causes inflammation and damage to the entire digestive tract. Both conditions cause significant problems for patients including increased bowel frequency, bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss. Both UC and CD are lifelong conditions and treatment is aimed at reducing flare ups of the disease and complications from long-term inflammation. The most serious potential complication of IBD is bowel cancer. 

Bowel surgery is probably the most important treatment option for severe inflammation. However, after surgery the remaining bowel is still at risk of developing cancer. This risk has not yet been properly investigated. The aim of this work is to understand whether there are any common features between the types of colorectal cancer that IBD patients are diagnosed with. The team will also investigate survival rates, the patient route through the healthcare system, and whether colonoscopies have any impact on a patient’s diagnosis. We shall be using existing NHS data.

Plain language summary - Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited genetic disease that damages the lungs, digestive system and other systems of the body. The damage is caused by a fault in a gene that affects the movement of salt and water in and out of cells and this can lead to a build-up of thick, sticky mucous inside a person. This mucous can cause a wide range of symptoms but especially problems with breathing.

Previously, people who had CF tended to die in childhood but, recently, treatments have improved and many are living much longer with more than half of those with the illness living to at least 47 years of age. Increasing this so all people with CF can have a normal life expectancy is, however, important so research is needed to work out how best to monitor these individuals for life threatening complications associated with the disease.

One such complication is bowel cancer. There is evidence from a small study in the USA that the risk of bowel cancer is increased in people with CF and, if this is true, then it is important to ensure that people with CF can be regularly reviewed so the cancer is caught early. This study aims to find out, therefore, whether the risk of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer is bigger in people with CF when compared to without the disease.

Testing projects

This article analyses diagnostic yield and independent effects of FIT, age, sex and symptoms on polyp and cancer detection in symptomatic colonoscopy, using colonoscopy reports extracted from the National Endoscopy Database (NED).