Elderly patients and inflammatory bowel disease

Table 1 Phenotypic characteristics of inflammatory bowel disease in elderly-onset inflammatory bowel disease

	Crohn’s disease	Ulcerative colitis
Location	Colonic or ileo-colonic	Left sided or extensive disease more common than isolated proctitis
Symptoms	Less bleeding and abdominal pain than younger patients	Less diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss than younger patients
Disease behaviour	Inflammatory; less progression to penetrating and structuring disease	More likely to remain stable
First episode	More severe than in younger patients	More severe than in younger patients
Extra-intestinal manifestations	Less common than in younger patients	Less common than in younger patients
Family history	Less common	Less common
Cancer risk	Higher risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma with thiopurines and of non-melanoma skin cancer with anti-TNF therapy	Higher risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma with thiopurines and of non-melanoma skin cancer with anti-TNF therapy