Endoscopic Surveillance in Long-standing Colitis

There is a relative increase in the risk of colon cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affecting the colon, and endoscopic surveillance is advocated to mitigate this risk. The current standard practice is to survey this high-risk patient population using colonoscopy. Chromoendoscopy with targeted biopsies has emerged as the colonoscopy modality recommended by the major societies to optimize dysplasia detection. Studies over the past year support the improved yield from targeted as compared to random biopsies and improved dysplasia detection from chromoendoscopy as compared to white light endoscopy. Ongoing efforts should focus on the implementation of chromoendoscopy as the primary modality for colorectal cancer surveillance in IBD. Our review will describe current status and provide an update on the recent literature on surveillance colonoscopy in patients with IBD.