Prolonged intervals between surveillance colonoscopies following colorectal cancer resection should be avoided to minimise the risk of missing advanced neoplasia, Australian doctors say.

The Flinders University-led team report a detection rate of 11% for advanced adenomas and 2% for adenocarcinomas during follow-up scopes performed one, four and seven years after surgery.

“Our findings support surveillance colonoscopy in the early postoperative years and demonstrate a significant burden of neoplasia found at all time points post-resection,” they wrote in the ANZ Journal of Surgery.

Their retrospective cohort study included 980 patients (median age 69 at surgery) who received at least one surveillance scope around 12 months after colorectal cancer (CRC) resection from 2000 to 2021.