This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Advanced neoplasms more common among siblings of patients with colorectal cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The siblings of patients with colorectal cancer are at increased risk for developing advanced neoplasms, including cancer, compared with people with cancer-free siblings, according to recent results.
In a prospective cross-sectional study in China, researchers evaluated the results of colonoscopies performed in 374 siblings of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), along with 374 matched controls without a family history of CRC who had normal colonoscopy results. Incidence of advanced neoplasms, defined as adenomas or cancers 10 mm in diameter or larger with high-grade dysplasia and/or villous or tubulovillous characteristics, was observed and compared between groups.
Advanced neoplasms occurred in 7.5% of the siblings of patients with CRC, compared with 2.9% of controls (matched OR=3.07; 95% CI, 1.5-6.3). Cancer was observed in six cases in the patient sibling group, while none occurred among controls.
Colorectal adenomas (31% compared with 18.2% of controls; mOR=2.19; 95% CI, 1.52-3.17), including those larger than 10 mm (5.9% vs. 2.1%; mOR=3.34; 95% CI, 1.45-7.66), were significantly more common among siblings of patients. This difference was significant for distal (13.1% vs. 8.3%; P=.006), proximal (12% vs. 6.2%; P=.007) and synchronous adenomas (5.9% vs. 2.7%; P=.004). Restricting analysis to siblings of patients with pathologically confirmed CRC, or to those cases and controls with one sibling per family, did not significantly affect risk estimates.
Investigators noted that advanced neoplasms were particularly more common among siblings of patients with CRC when the index patient was female (mOR=4.95; 95% CI, 1.81-13.55), aged 60 years or older (mOR=3.09; 95% CI, 1.24-7.73) or had distal CRC (mOR=3.1; 95% CI, 1.34-7.14).
“We observed a strong and significant increased risk of advanced neoplasms, including cancers in close relatives of subjects with CRC,” the researchers wrote. “Siblings of individuals with CRC deserve screening. … Several countries in Asia have reported an increase in the incidence of CRC. Information obtained from this study can help establish the risk to [first-degree relatives] of affected individuals, and provide a background against which screening strategies can be formulated.”
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts