Spatial omics identifies potential inflammatory risk factors for development of colitis-associated cancer in IBD

In our latest paper we used spatial transcriptomics and proteomics to identify specific risk factors at early stages of cancer development in patients with Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis). Many patients undergo regular surveillance endoscopy, to remove any potential malignant growths. Besides this being a high burden for the patients, it remained unclear which inflammatory factors are responsible for the higher risk of cancer development. Hence complicating choices for treatment which could either reduce or worsen this risk. We identified elevated inflammatory factors, namely cytokines (IL17), signaling pathways (JAK-STAT signaling) in both epithelium and immune cells that were elevated only in patients that developed dysplasia. Since drugs for these pathways exist, future research should demonstrate whether such specific treatments benefit IBD patients at risk of cancer development by both reducing inflammation and preventing cancer development.. We thank the fantastic team of collaborators from the clinic, biostatistics, and multi-scale spatial omics platform. Congratulations to the team, especially Matthijs Baars and Evelien Floor and our partners in IBD research from the Oldenburg group.

We dedicate this to the memory of Neeraj Sinha, co-first author of this work.