Grant: Project Grant

Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD) affects over 200,000 Canadians. Individuals with IBD have a significantly greater risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC): the risk is 2% after 10 yrs of being diagnosed with IBD, but increases to 30% after 30 yrs of suffering from this disease. Unfortunately, the screening for colorectal cancer that is currently provided to the general population (fecal occult blood testing) is inadequate for this group. White light colonoscopy is currently the gold standard but is challenging, as lesions are sometimes difficult to identify. Thus random biopsies, in addition to targeted biopsies of abnormalities visualized by white light, are often performed. This leads to complications and patients suffering, as well as significant healthcare cost. Our objective is to develop a novel endoscopy approach to improve the clinical management of IBD. An endoscope probe based on a technology Raman spectroscopy will be developed that analyzes the tissue biochemistry before biopsy. We expect that this new technology when successfully developed will greatly improve the accuracy of biopsy, saving health care cost and improve CRC detection in IBD patients.