Risk Factors for Colonic Polyps in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disorder affecting over 30,000 children and adults in the United States. With improving healthcare, cystic fibrosis patients’ survival has improved over the past several decades. CF patients have an increased incidence of cancer of the gastrointestinal (gi) tract. Little is known about why there is this increased incidence of gi malignancies. This research focuses on investigating potential risk factors for developing colonic polyps in patients over 40 years of age with CF. Two databases were established to capture data related to the research goals. The first database was created based on a questionnaire developed to capture potential risk factor information on CF patients undergoing a colonoscopy. The second allowed for data capture of the physician’s report of that same colonoscopy. Data was gathered from multiple procedure reports. Preliminary data review suggests gender may be a risk factor for developing colonic polyps.