Posted on 11/01/2022 7:20:39 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Through the ESPRESSO cohort, researchers examined the risk of cancer among 75,000 patients with a diagnosis of diverticular disease and colorectal histopathology.
The ESPRESSO cohort covers all histopathology reports from Sweden's 28 pathology departments. Through linkage with the Swedish national patient register, researchers identified patients with diverticular disease.
Diverticular disease can present through gastrointestinal bleeding, but also through diverticulitis when patients may have fever, nausea and abdominal pain. Previous research has focused on colorectal cancer development in diverticular disease but less has been known about cancer development elsewhere. The researchers found a 33% increased risk of overall cancer in Swedish patients with diverticular disease.
"This is the first nationwide cohort study to demonstrate that diverticular disease is associated with an increased, long-term risk of overall cancer," says Wenjie Ma. "Diverticular disease is associated with an increased risk of specific cancers, including liver cancer and lung cancer."
She also adds that "given the high prevalence of diverticular disease, our results highlight the need for awareness for cancer, not only for colorectal cancer, in patients with diverticular disease."
Patients with diverticular disease had significantly increased overall cancer incidence (24.5 vs. 18.1 cancer cases per 1,000 person-years). After adjusting for covariates, these rates corresponded to 1 extra cancer case in 16 individuals with diverticular disease followed for ten years.
"There has been a lot of research on extraintestinal cancer in other bowel disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and celiac disease, but less is known about diverticular disease," says Jonas F Ludvigsson.
"These data suggest that patients with diverticular disease are at increased risk of other cancers than colorectal cancer, but it should also be emphasized that the absolute risk for cancer was moderate," adds Ludvigsson. "I hope other researchers are inspired and explore the biological mechanisms underlying the association," he concludes.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Diverticulitis almost claimed me as a fatality statistic back in January.
It’s no joke but I survived and finally got repaired a few weeks ago.
Many years ago I nearly lost my mother to diverticular disease. She was very stoic and waited too long, but She recovered. She was then diagnosed with and eventually died from multiple myeloma a few years later.
I have a relative who died from such a rupture.
Sadly, that would appear to be consistent with what this study found.
According to the surgery crowd, a few hours more and it would have been adios for good.
I used to get hit with it 6 to 8 times per year. I started eating yogurt with live and active cultures and it pretty much disappeared. It only has happened a couple times in the past 5 years while traveling and not on my regular diet of live and active cultures. I currently consume kefir instead and that works as well.
It happened to my wife 24 days ago. E room, emergency surgery late in the evening, stoma and two 50cent sized holes in the abdomen to mark the end of the staples. Not fun at all.
The kicker is that she had been told by her surgeon last year to schedule an operation. You may know the spiel “you do not want emergency surgery on this, get it done ASAP”.
When she presented it to her primary physician, he said “why would you want to get an operation if you don’t need one”? So she dismissed the recommendation.
I’ve only had 2 bouts of diverticulitis but the second one had me in the hospital for 3 days on IV antibiotics. Like you, kefir in now my morning drink. Knock wood it seems to be helping.
I had to endure the osteomy misery for most of the year.
Part of the delay was my original and great surgeon dying from some freak aneurysm I heard.
His replacement was not so hot. What times I went to him jumping every hoop he set from month to month I might as well not be in the exam room.
His last bit of sage medical advice really upset me and my wife. The short version “lose 40 pounds and see you in November” followed up with “I did so you can as well.”
I was able to get a second opinion with a top surgeon in the same system via a very unexpected route.
One stop shopping with the replacement. Everything has gone as advertised. A little tenderness here and there with some minor discomfort in the reversed section. That is going away ever so slowly.
Surgery on Wednesday morning and I was released Sunday morning.
Bkmk
The after affects of colon surgery can be horrendous, as I’ve found out over the years, I’m talking about scar tissue that can cause blockage.
I had 5 inches of colon removed in 1990 due to diverticulitis emergency surgery and on average every 5 years or so I have blockage. The pain is indescribably intense, emergency room intense. My last attack however was in 2015.
Every surgeon or M.D. I’ve talked to since it began tells me the same thing, do NOT have additional surgery to remove the scar tissue because it will cause even more scar tissue and even bigger problems.
My surgeon told me that ALL his female patients say that the pain is worse than labor pains and child birth.
Emergency room treatment for the pain is to keep me in la la land with pain killer injections until it clears itself and it works.
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