Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2015; 21(45): 12735-12741
Published online Dec 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i45.12735
Interval colorectal carcinoma: An unsolved debate
Mark Benedict, Antonio Galvao Neto, Xuchen Zhang
Mark Benedict, Xuchen Zhang, Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, United States
Antonio Galvao Neto, Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, United States
Xuchen Zhang, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service, VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, CT 06516, United States
Author contributions: Benedict M, Neto AG and Zhang X contributed to the conception and design; Benedict M drafted and revised the manuscript; Zhang X and Neto AG supervised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xuchen Zhang, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, 310 Cedar Street. PO Box 208023, New Haven, CT 06520, United States. xuchen.zhang@yale.edu
Telephone: +1-203-9325711 Fax: +1-203-9374704
Received: April 30, 2015
Peer-review started: May 8, 2015
First decision: July 10, 2015
Revised: July 16, 2015
Accepted: October 13, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: December 7, 2015
Abstract

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC), as the third most common new cancer diagnosis, poses a significant health risk to the population. Interval CRCs are those that appear after a negative screening test or examination. The development of interval CRCs has been shown to be multifactorial: location of exam-academic institution versus community hospital, experience of the endoscopist, quality of the procedure, age of the patient, flat versus polypoid neoplasia, genetics, hereditary gastrointestinal neoplasia, and most significantly missed or incompletely excised lesions. The rate of interval CRCs has decreased in the last decade, which has been ascribed to an increased understanding of interval disease and technological advances in the screening of high risk individuals. In this article, we aim to review the literature with regard to the multifactorial nature of interval CRCs and provide the most recent developments regarding this important gastrointestinal entity.

Keywords: Colorectal carcinoma, Interval colorectal carcinoma, Post colonoscopy colorectal cancer, Detection, Screening

Core tip: Interval colorectal cancers (CRCs) represent a small but important subgroup of colorectal cancers. Interval CRCs are those that appear after a negative screening test or examination. The development of interval CRCs has been shown to be multifactorial. We aim to review the multifactorial nature of interval CRCs and provide the most recent developments regarding this important entity.