Hi all,
I'm newly diagnosed. My gastroenterologist thought my tumor was benign, but wasn't able to remove what he thought was a polyp so he sent me for a mucosectomy. The ultrasound performed during that procedure didn't show conclusively that the tumor was growing into the 3rd layer of the colon (submucosa) so the doctor went ahead and removed the tumor. Normally a mucosectomy is not performed if a tumor is growing into the 3rd layer - the patient just gets referred to surgery.
When the pathology report came back it showed my tumor had just started growing into the submucosa, was characterized as T1, and it showed that the margins were clear.
The doctor who performed that procedure called me after the pathology report was completed and said I might have the option of just being monitored, or it may be recommended I have surgery.
I'm still gathering information, still need to have a CT scan, and I'm getting ready to get a second opinion (and maybe third). But I wondered if anyone here has had any sort of similar experience or heard of anything similar. I can't imagine not having surgery and then just worrying all the time about the risk of spread, but then I wouldn't want to jump into surgery if it was thought that the risk was so low I could just be monitored. But it's hard to know who to trust.