The second Genoa meeting on colorectal polyps “Recent Advances In Colorectal Polyps” Genoa 4/11/2014

Excerpt

Ten years after the first meeting, Genoa hosted again an update on colorectal polyps. Gian Andrea Binda organized a extremely successful congress that took place in the elegant venue of Villa Quartara surrounded by a wonderful silent park. It provided a one-day comprehensive update of all the aspects of the latest innovations on colorectal polyps. The congress was opened by an interesting session on genetics and epidemiology. Over the past few years, the genes responsible for hereditary syndromes characterized by adenomatous and hamartomatous colorectal polyposis have been identified giving us the possibility of genetic testing in clinical practice. This helps clinicians in therapeutic decision-making and allows a tailored policy of surveillance of the patients’ relatives. A reliable test to screen asymptomatic individuals and to diagnose advanced adenomas and low-stage colorectal cancers is the key tool for minimizing mortality. Unfortunately, current testing strategies are suboptimal, but promising approaches using noninvasive genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic analysis of the biological samples have been proposed. New highlights from a breathomic approach concerning the identification of specific patterns of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath were reported. The role that aspirin, metformin and phytoestrogens could play in primary prevention was also elucidated. …