gastrointestinal disorders
Celiac Disease
Prognosis for Celiac Disease
Complications of celiac disease include refractory disease, collagenous sprue, and intestinal lymphomas. Intestinal lymphomas affect 6 to 8% of patients with celiac disease, usually manifesting after 20 to 40 years of disease. The incidence of other gastrointestinal cancers (eg, carcinoma of the esophagus or oropharynx, small-bowel adenocarcinoma) also increases ( Prognosis reference ). Adherence to a gluten-free diet can significantly reduce the risk of cancer. If people who have been doing well on a gluten-free diet for a long time once again develop symptoms of celiac disease, physicians usually do upper endoscopy with small-bowel biopsy and/or capsule endoscopy to check for signs of intestinal lymphoma. 1.Ilus T, Kaukinen K, Virta LJ, et al: Incidence of malignancies in diagnosed celiac patients: A population-based estimate.Am J Gastroenterol109(9):1471–1477, 2014. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2014.194 