IBD boosts melanoma risk

Patients who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at an increased risk of melanoma, according to study results presented recently.

Researchers with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., conducted a search of all published studies related to IBD over the past 70 years, according to a news release. The studies yielded information on 172,836 patients with IBD, from which the investigators found 179 cases of melanoma following IBD diagnoses.

“Based on this data, we are suggesting that physicians appropriately counsel IBD patients about the risk of melanoma,” study author Siddharth Singh, M.B.B.S., a gastroenterologist. “Sun-protective measures are very effective in preventing this cancer.”

The findings were presented recently at the Digestive Disease Week 2013 conference in Orlando, Fla.