Racial disparities in the incidence of colon cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a debilitating disease that affects 1.4 million people in the United States (US) (1,2). The incidence of IBD is strikingly high in North America, ranging from 2.2 to 19.2 cases per 100,000 person-years (3,4). There is a significant heritable component of this disease, with first degree relatives having approximately a 3–20 times increased likelihood of developing the disease (5-9). Environmental causes such as smoking and diets high in processed food, refined sugar, and milk protein have been theorized as explanations for this increase (10-14)