Considerations and management of a patient with three metachronous cancers in association with Lynch syndrome and ileal Crohn's disease: A case report

Colorectal cancer in adolescents and young adults with Lynch syndrome: a Danish register-based study

OBJECTIVE

To assess clinicopathological predictors and prognosis in early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC) in Lynch syndrome with comparison to patients diagnosed from age 40 and up.

DESIGN

National, retrospective register-based case-control study.

SETTING

Danish national hereditary CRC register.

PARTICIPANTS

Individuals with Lynch syndrome diagnosed with CRC from January 1950 to June 2020. The analysis was based on 215 early-onset CRCs diagnosed between 15 and 39 years of age and 574 CRCs diagnosed at age 40-88 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Clinical and histopathological characteristics and survival. Confounding variables were analysed by Cox analysis.

RESULTS

27.2% of the tumours in the Danish Lynch syndrome cohort were diagnosed under age 40. Disease-predisposing alterations in MLH1 and MSH2 were overrepresented in the age 15-39 cohort compared with patients diagnosed over age 40. CRCs diagnosed under age 40 showed an adverse stage distribution with 36.2% stage III-IV tumours compared with 25.8% in the over age 40 group. However, young patients diagnosed with early-stage tumours did have a significantly better prognosis compared with early-stage tumours in the older age group.

CONCLUSIONS

Early-onset CRC in Lynch syndrome is primarily linked to alterations in MLH1 and MSH2 and displays an adverse stage distribution. These observations serve as a reminder of surveillance, symptom awareness and rapid diagnostic handling of CRC in young adults with Lynch syndrome.

A rare case of Crohn's ileitis in a patient with constitutional mismatch repair deficiency

Constitutional mismatch repair deficiency (CMMRD), a variant of Lynch syndrome, is a rare disease characterized by café-au-lait spots, oligopolyposis, glioblastoma and lymphoma. A 24-year-old male, under surveillance for CMMRD, developed Crohn’s ileitis after total colectomy with end ileostomy for colorectal cancer and failed to respond to oral corticosteroids. The patient underwent induction and maintenance of remission with vedolizumab infusions. We report the first patient with CMMRD developing Crohn’s disease. The choice of immunosuppressive therapy in these patients is challenging and needs to be made according to their risk for malignancy.

Colorectal Cancer Risk in Patients With Lynch Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Lynch syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, it is not clear whether the risk of CRC is even higher for patients with a combination of Lynch syndrome and IBD. We investigated the risk for CRC in this subgroup by establishing a Lynch syndrome cohort from the Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and the Academic Medical Center (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Patients with heterozygous germline mutations in MLH1, MSH2 (and EPCAM deletion-mediated MSH2 methylation), MSH6, or PMS2 who were tested and/or treated from 1998 through 2014 were included. Patients who developed IBD were identified by linkage of this cohort to the Dutch nationwide Pathology Registry (PALGA). Subsequently, we compared the risk of CRC between Lynch syndrome patients with IBD and without IBD. Of 1046 patients with Lynch syndrome, 15 developed IBD (1.4%). Patients with Lynch syndrome and IBD were significantly younger (median age, 38.0 y) than patients with Lynch syndrome without IBD (median age, 52.0 y; P = .001). Nevertheless, a similar proportion of patients in each group developed CRC: 4 of the 15 patients (26.7%) with Lynch syndrome and IBD compared with 311 of the 1031 patients (30.2%) with Lynch syndrome without IBD. Patients with Lynch syndrome and IBD developed CRC at a younger age (median age, 36.0 y) than patients with Lynch syndrome without IBD (median age, 46.0 y; P = .045). However, the cumulative incidence of CRC was similar between groups (P = .121). All patients with Lynch syndrome and IBD who developed CRC had ulcerative colitis, producing a higher cumulative incidence of CRC for this IBD subgroup (P < .001). In conclusion, patients with Lynch syndrome and IBD develop CRC risk at a younger age than patients without IBD; patients with ulcerative colitis are at especially high risk.

Is there a role for prophylactic colectomy in Lynch syndrome patients with inflammatory bowel disease?

PURPOSE

Lynch syndrome and chronic inflammatory bowel disease are two important risk factors for colorectal cancer. It is unclear whether Lynch syndrome patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at sufficiently increased risk for colorectal cancer to warrant prophylactic colectomy. This study aims to identify all cases of Lynch syndrome and concurrent inflammatory bowel disease in a large familial gastrointestinal cancer registry, define incidence of colorectal cancer, and characterize mismatch repair protein gene mutation status and inflammatory bowel disease-associated colorectal cancer risk factors.

METHODS

We retrospectively identified and collected clinical data for all cases with confirmed diagnoses of Lynch syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease in the Familial Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada.

RESULTS

Twelve cases of confirmed Lynch syndrome, and concurrent inflammatory bowel disease were identified. Four cases developed colorectal cancer. An additional five cases had colectomy; one was performed for severe colitis, and four were performed for low-grade dysplasia. None of these surgical specimens contained malignancy or high-grade dysplasia.

CONCLUSIONS

The presentation of Lynch syndrome with inflammatory bowel disease is uncommon and not well described in the literature. This small but important series of twelve cases is the largest reported to date. In this series, patients with Lynch syndrome and concurrent inflammatory bowel disease do not appear to have sufficiently increased risk for colorectal cancer to recommend prophylactic surgery. Therefore, the decision to surgery should continue to be guided by surgical indications for each disease. Further evaluation of this important area will require multi-institutional input.