Crohn's disease Those people whose disease affects only their small bowel may very rarely develop cancer of the small bowel. These people may elect to undergo colectomy to relieve their symptoms and eliminate their colon cancer risk. These people have follow-up surveillance using colonoscopy. Decisions about frequency of colonoscopy are made on an individual basis. This can be viewed as follow-up surveillance rather than screening and people can be advised to discuss this with their specialist.
Medical opinion does vary.
However, following surgical resection, colonoscopy is recommended to detect the presence of newly developed adenomatous polyps. They would be excised during colonoscopy to prevent the development of invasive cancer. All rights reserved. Readers are strongly advised to refer to the relevant specialist sources of information when making clinical decisions. All rights reserved.