This protocol describes the epos (ancient Greek (Επος) for “story”) of a group of related clinical trials aiming at addressing one of the most important unsolved challenges in the prevention of colorectal cancer (one of our major cancer killers); the surveillance of patients with premalignant polyps in the large bowel.
This project is timely because large scale colorectal cancer screening programmes are currently rolled out in most Western countries. These programmes are diagnosing large numbers of individuals with premalignant polyps (adenomas and serrated polyps). This creates both a diagnostic and resource dilemma, because the optimal surveillance strategy for these individuals to reduce future cancer risk is currently unknown.