Secondary prevention of colorectal cancer conducted by the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer in the Province of Latina, Italy. Preliminary results

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is one of the “big killers” of the western world. Despite the significant progress seen in surgical and radiotherapic techniques, as well as in chemotherapy both in the adjuvant phase and in the advanced stages of disease, still today many patients diagnosed later than the I stage of disease die due to relapse or progression of the disease. Secondary prevention thus remains an important instrument in reducing mortality due to this neoplasm. From 2000 to 2007, the Provincial Section in Latina of the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer (Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori = LILT) conducted a screening campaign for this pathology, inviting close relatives of patients operated for colorectal cancer to undergo a colonoscopy. Of the 501 people examined, we found 98 adenomas (19.5%) and 18 carcinomas (3.5%), giving an overall total of 116 cases of neoplasia (23%). Proliferative lesions underwent biopsy and, when possible, endoscopic excision. No complications have been observed following this method. Our data are in line with those in the literature and confirm that this subset of the population is at risk for proliferative pathologies of the colon, and furthermore confirms that colonoscopy is the method of choice for the diagnosis and treatment of adenomatous lesions.