Sham Al-Mashadi Dahl who has just defended her PhD dissertation has conducted three studies on the risk and prognosis of infections in cancer patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

IBD are chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory disorders encompassing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Patients with IBD face an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer as well as several other types of cancer.

When patients with IBD develop colorectal cancer, their prognosis is typically worse compared to those without IBD, which may be exacerbated by their inherent increased risk of infections. Serious infections are a leading cause of hospitalization and mortality among IBD patients. Moreover, infections account for more than half of all oncology-related hospital admissions, negatively affecting cancer-specific survival rates.

The PhD project provides novel insights into the association between IBD and post-cancer infection risk, as well as the link between IBD and post-colorectal cancer mortality, based on data from a Danish cancer cohort.

The summary is written by the PhD student.