Difficulties in diagnosis of non-conventional dysplasia in inflammatory bowel disease

Purpose: To provide a morphological characterization of dysplasia occurring against the background of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), considering the new classification of dysplasia.
Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis was conducted, and biopsies were reviewed from 257 patients with IBD treated at Sechenov University clinics from 2018 to 2023. Patients' ages ranged from 19 to 63 years. Diagnosis was based on a combination of clinical, laboratory, and instrumental methods. Multiple biopsies were taken during colonoscopy, processed using standard metods.
Results. Non-traditional dysplasia was diagnosed in 5 patients, accounting for 1.95% of cases over a 6-year period. Two cases involved hypermucinous dysplasia in patients aged 35 and 43 with ulcerative colitis, with disease durations of 12 and 9 years, respectively. crypt cell atypia/dysplasia was diagnosed in two patients aged 40 and 30, with ulcerative colitis durations of 5 and 10 years, respectively. In a 51- year-old patient with Crohn's disease for over 15 years, dysplasia resembling a dentate lesion was found in the ascending intestine. Dysplasia diagnosis was confirmed using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining with TP53 antibodies (clone DO-7 Leica RTU, Germany), showing positive staining of tumor cell nuclei, indicating TP53 gene mutation. Two out of five cases exhibited total colon involvement in inflammatory process, and one ulcerative colitis case was combined with primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Conclusion. Before the appearance of the latest classifications of dysplasia in IBD, we rarely diagnosed dysplasia in biopsies from IBD patients. We now understand that the spectrum of potential neoplastic precursor lesions of colorectal cancer in IBD patients is much wider and this understanding can ensure that clinically important but rare lesions will not be undiagnosed. Future studies of their natural course may eventually determine that some lesions are more clinically important than others.

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