The Colon Club

I'm 35 and I had a colonoscopy last week due to family history of polyps and they found 2 flat Polyps and the GI Dr. said they were the adenomas type, one 8mm in right side - cecum and one 15mm in transverse.
I'm waiting on biopsy results and stressing out and I'm trying to get any information possible at the chances of them being cancerous. He didn't sound real concerned or mention anything of it being cancer, just that they are the pre-cancer type and recommended a 3 year follow up for another Colonoscopy even before results.

Thanks for your time in reading this.

Most doctors will tell you that smaller polyps 'TEND' not to be cancerous BUT.....you can't know without getting the biopsy results. A few years back, my best friend had her scope and they found a very tiny polyp. Doc came into the recovery area and told her that it was a tiny polyp....not to worry....everything would be fine. I got SO irate at that doctor (I was in the room and heard all of this). A few days later, the pathology report came back. High grade dysplasia (basically the polyp was precancerous....already morphing so to speak) and now she's on the 3 year plan. She was lucky.....she got in in time before the polyp became cancerous. Doc was shocked that this tiny polyp wasn't benign.

My suggestion....quit googling. There is nothing to be gained from it. The only definitive report will be the pathology report and you're just going to have to wait for results. If it isn't cancerous or even precancerous...hooray!!! If it is precancerous or even cancerous just be glad that it was caught early. Even IF it is cancerous, it isn't all doom and gloom. I know it's difficult to say but RELAX. Breathe....try to stop playing Dr. Google and just wait for the results. One thing for certain....you will need to have scopes from now often and intervals likely never to exceed 5 years apart. Don't take your health for granted. Be proactive and avoid any future problems.

Thanks for your reply, I will defo keep current with my colonoscopies especially after this experience, it wasn't as bad as the prep solution that's for sure. I'm glad they are out and hope for good results.

weisssoccermom wrote:...you can't know without getting the biopsy results. ... The only definitive report will be the pathology report and you're just going to have to wait for results....

The chances of a polyp being cancerous depend mainly on the histology of the polyp, and you won't know anything about that until the pathology report comes out.

When you get the pathology report, you can look for terms like "tubular", "tubulovillous", and "villous", and these can give you some idea of the chances of the polyp ever becoming cancerous. You can also look at the size of the polyp. A 15mm polyp is the same as a 1.5 cm polyp, i.e., almost as large as a 2 cm polyp.

Here is some information on that:

O Stoma Mia wrote:

...It is well known that colorectal cancers arise from adenomatous polyps, which have three histologic variants: tubular, tubulovillous, and villous adenomas. Tubular adenomas represent ~75% to 85% of adenomatous polyps and have < 5% chance of harboring a malignancy. Tubulovillous adenomas represent 10% to 15% of polyps and usually 20% to 25% harbor a malignancy. Villous adenomas constitute 5% to 10% of the remaining polyps and 35% to 40% of the polyps are malignant.
The size and degree of villous features are also predictive of the risk of malignancy within the polyp. Polyps larger than 2 cm have > 40% chance of being malignant...

Reference:
Colorectal Cancer: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Health Services (2005)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2780097/

Tubulovillous Adenoma

Thanks for posting that information, this will help me understand the report better. Being at 15mm I'm glad it was taken out when it was and not at age 50 when it could have gotten bigger.

I recently had a colonoscopy on 7/6/18. A flat 30mm friable polyp was found. A biopsy was taken and I’m currently waiting for the results. I’m 50 years old and in pretty good health. How are these removed?

I find it interesting that the article on "sidedness" never mentions MSI vs MSS, or Keytruda.

Right-side tumors are more likely to be MSI-H and thus more likely to have a good response to Keytruda, while left-side MSS tumors do not. The article emphasizes drugs that affect the EGFR pathway only. That's fine for KRAS wild-type folks. It is increasingly irrelevant to the rest of us as new drugs emerge.

I think that it is likely that the information in the 2017 article is based on outdated science, just as the "survival rates" cited in various places such as Wikipedia are out of date, because they were compiled from cases that were treated before a significant number of current drugs were even available.

I'm not going to sink into gloom on the basis of that article.

weisssoccermom wrote:My suggestion....quit googling. There is nothing to be gained from it. The only definitive report will be the pathology report and you're just going to have to wait for results. If it isn't cancerous or even precancerous...hooray!!! If it is precancerous or even cancerous just be glad that it was caught early. Even IF it is cancerous, it isn't all doom and gloom. I know it's difficult to say but RELAX. Breathe....try to stop playing Dr. Google and just wait for the results. One thing for certain....you will need to have scopes from now often and intervals likely never to exceed 5 years apart. Don't take your health for granted. Be proactive and avoid any future problems.

I went to second this advice. I caused myself so much angst and worry by using Dr. Google when I was where you're at. BTW, I had a flat polyp that was cancerous that I needed surgery and chemo for and I'm currently NED now. You'll get support here from people who know what you're going through.