Kayano H, Okada KI, Yamamoto S, Koyanagi K. Establishment of a surveillance program for anal cancer in Crohn's disease. World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(45): 4844-4849 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i45.4844]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Kazuo Koyanagi, MD, PhD, FACS, Professor, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara 259-1193, Kanagawa, Japan. kkoyanagi@tokai.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
Hajime Kayano, Ken-Ichi Okada, Seiichiro Yamamoto, Kazuo Koyanagi, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara 259-1193, Kana-gawa, Japan
Co-corresponding authors: Hajime Kayano and Kazuo Koyanagi.
Author contributions: Kayano H and Koyanagi K contributed to the manuscript; Okada K and Yamamoto S supervised the writing of the paper; All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript; Kayano H and Koyanagi K designed the overall concept and contributed to writing, editing, and reviewing the literature; Both Kayano H and Koyanagi K have played important and indispensable roles in the manuscript preparation as the co-corresponding authors.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kazuo Koyanagi, MD, PhD, FACS, Professor, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara 259-1193, Kanagawa, Japan. kkoyanagi@tokai.ac.jp
Received: August 13, 2024 Revised: September 23, 2024 Accepted: October 25, 2024 Published online: December 7, 2024 Processing time: 91 Days and 22.3 Hours
Abstract
This letter discusses the incidence of anal cancer among Crohn's disease (CD)-related malignancies. Patients with CD have been demonstrated to be at a higher risk of developing small bowel and colorectal cancers than healthy individuals. Although CD-associated anal cancer is relatively rare, patients with CD accompanied by anal or perianal lesions are at increased risk of anal cancer. Additionally, compared to ulcerative colitis, which is also an inflammatory disease, CD-related anal cancer is often detected at an advanced stage owing to the complexity of CD and is associated with a poor prognosis with frequent local recurrences. Therefore, the detection of early-stage cancer is crucial for improving the prognosis. However, the surveillance methods recommended for CD-related malignancies in the United States and Europe are similar to those for ulcerative colitis. They are not appropriate for detecting CD-related malignancies in the recto-anal region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for surveillance programs aimed at the early detection of malignant anorectal lesions in patients with CD.
Core Tip: Patients with Crohn's disease (CD) are at a high risk of developing small and large bowel cancer. Regional differences exist in the prevalence of colorectal cancer, with more reports of right- and left-sided colorectal cancer in Western and Asian countries, respectively. The disease is detected at an advanced stage, and local recurrence is common, resulting in poor prognosis. Although surveillance programs have been established for ulcerative colitis, programs for colorectal cancer, especially anal cancer in CD, are lacking. Therefore, there is an imperative to focus on CD-related anal cancer and establish appropriate surveillance programs.
