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Not all tumors found in the colon are actually cancerous. So let's take a moment and talk
about the adenomas and what they are.
An adenoma is a growth, a nodule that you will find during your colonoscopy. Why is
it important because almost all colon cancers will develop through stage of a few cells
that you cannot see inside the wall growing becoming more independent from the other cells
and almost always they will develop into what we call adenoma. An adenoma is a nodule full
of cells that are not cancerous in this sense that they will spread to other organs, but
that have acquired some of the biologic machinery to start uncontrolled growth. The important
thing to know is that at this stage, if you completely remove them, the chance of developing
cancer at that site is very, very low to completely abrogate it. So it is important to detect
them as soon as possible. The other thing to know is the shape of the adenoma and the
location will also give us some hints about how dangerous that might become in future
in terms of developing cancer. The more flat ones are obviously more difficult to remove
and this should be more closely observed. The ones that have a stark, they are more
easily removed. They are less likely to develop into cancer, so the assessment of how concerning
any of these adenomas is will depend on your gastroenterologist who is performing the colonoscopy
and actually can visualize those and tell us if he was able to completely remove each
of them. The pathologist will then review these adenomas under the microscope to make
sure that they have not developed into a bona fide cancers and if they were completely removed.
So we will need both the gastroenterologist, as well as, the pathologist in order to establish
whether it is an adenoma or not.
For an interactive tool to learn more about your colon cancer and your personalized treatment
options go to MyColonCancerCoach.org.