Risk stratification in inflammatory bowel disease

Understanding risk from epidemiological studies and translating that in to clinical practice can be difficult for gastroenterologists. It is a challenge to help some patients understand the relative (un)likelihood of certain events, it is a challenge to help regulators and funders of health care to understand certain “off-label” requests, and it is a challenge to change practice in light of some risks (health and financial). Frontline Gastroenterology has launched a monthly Journal Watch series online, with selected items included in the quarterly editions you are now reading. One of these Journal Watch pieces addressed that first challenge, reviewing the recent journal articles on the relatively very low risks of malignancy with immunosuppressants and anti-TNF therapies.1 In this edition, the St …