The new guidelines offer help to patients and clinicians on how best to monitor inflammatory bowel disease and catch signs of bowel cancer early.

Experts from Welbeck Health Partners and the University of Oxford have established new guidelines for people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to reduce their risk of developing bowel cancer have been developed. 

Led by James East, gastroenterologist and medical director at private healthcare centre Welbeck Oxford, the guidelines offer advice to patients and clinicians on how best to monitor IBD and catch signs of bowel cancer early. 

“These guidelines are designed to give both clinicians and patients the latest, clearest advice to support decisions about care,” said East.

The findings have been developed for the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) and are supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the NIHR Newcastle BRC.

Risk of bowel cancer

Half a million people in the UK live with IBD, with an estimated 5,250 of those living in Oxfordshire. Another 25,000 people nationally are newly diagnosed with Crohn’s and colitis each year too.

People living with IBD, Crohn’s and colitis face a higher risk of developing bowel cancer compared to the general population, even with advances in treatment and regular check-ups. A person’s risk can be affected by factors such as how long they have had IBD, which part of their bowel is affected, and the level of inflammation they experience.

The guidelines were developed by a wide team of doctors, endoscopists, surgeons, specialist nurses and patients, working alongside academics from the Universities of Oxford, Newcastle and Central Lancashire and others. Together, they analysed more than 7,500 research papers to create 73 clear, evidence-based recommendations to guide clinical care.

The guidelines, published in the medical journal Gut, recommend all IBD patients have a colonoscopy eight years after their symptoms first appear. For patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare condition that affects the bile ducts and liver, the guidelines advise a colonoscopy at the time of diagnosis.