It is actually a “meat lump” on the surface of the mucosa of the large intestine. To be more precise, colorectal polyp refers to a raised lesion on the surface of the intestinal mucosa protruding into the intestinal lumen, which is a common disease, and more than 70% of them are adenomatous polyps.
Many studies have shown that some adenomatous polyps have a very high chance of becoming cancerous, and the chance of becoming cancerous gradually increases with age. In a sense, colorectal adenomas are the “precursors” of bowel cancer.
So, how far is it from intestinal polyp to intestinal cancer?
80% of colorectal cancers evolve from colorectal adenomas].
According to the pathological classification, some colorectal polyps are the products of benign hyperplasia and some are the consequences of inflammatory hyperplasia. However, the name “colorectal polyp” has been used until now because of the general similarity with the naked eye.
Statistics show that 80% of colorectal cancers evolve from colorectal adenomas: the incidence of bowel cancer is 3-5 times higher in patients with adenomatous polyps than in the general population, and up to 10 times or more in multiple adenomas.
In addition, the larger the size of adenomatous polyps, the higher the chance of cancer; the higher the cancer rate of non-tipped adenomas compared to tipped adenomas, so it is not just a wind that adenomatous polyps are classified as precancerous lesions. If they are not detected in time and eradicated early, some of them will one day turn into the dreaded bowel cancer.
How do colorectal polyps “lurk”?
Most colorectal polyps are clinically asymptomatic at the beginning of the disease, and they will be silently “lurking” in our body, which is not easily detectable.
Some of the larger polyps can also cause intestinal symptoms, mainly changes in stool habits, increased frequency, mucus or mucus blood in the stool, but occasionally abdominal pain, a very small number of patients will have masses prolapse from the anus during stool. Some patients may have long-term blood in the stool or anemia, and patients with family history often have a suggestive effect on the diagnosis of polyps.
Since colorectal polyps are often asymptomatic clinically, even if some gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, constipation are mild and atypical, they are often overlooked. In general, patients usually come to the clinic with blood, blood in stool or mucus and blood, and are often misdiagnosed as hemorrhoids and other anal diseases and delay the examination.
Colonoscopy is the best hunter to catch colorectal cancer lesions].
Adenomatous colon polyps grow slowly, and early removal of colon polyps is significant to improve clinical symptoms and reduce the occurrence of colorectal cancer. So what are the methods to fight against colorectal polyps?
Since the application of e-colonoscopy in clinical treatment, clinicians have made a qualitative leap in the treatment of colorectal polyps, specific treatment methods can be based on the nature of intestinal polyps: polyps with a tip and small polyps without a tip, can be removed by e-colonoscopy, electrocautery with a trap under direct vision, or thermal biopsy clamp method, such methods have a high success rate and exact treatment results.
During the colonoscopy, if the doctor finds a large polyp, a piece of tissue is usually taken for biopsy and sent to the pathology department for pathological analysis. If it is a small polyp, the lesion can be removed by direct endoscopic removal. The removed tissues will then be sent to pathology department for pathological diagnosis, and if the diagnosis is benign, the occurrence of cancer will be blocked.
Surgery is the most direct and effective way to eradicate colorectal cancer].
The tissues taken out from colonoscopy need to be sent to pathology department for examination, and through certain procedures, they will be made into pathological sections. The pathologist will observe the morphology of the lesion and finally give a pathological diagnosis. This pathological diagnosis will help surgeons determine the nature, stage and degree of cancer, and guide the subsequent treatment plan.
It can be said that pathological diagnosis is the “gold standard” for diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer.
According to the depth of cancer cell invasion, colorectal cancer is divided into four main stages.
When cancer cells start to grow slowly but do not invade the muscle layer or just invade the muscle layer, this is stage I colorectal cancer, that is, early stage colorectal cancer.
When the cancer cells invade deeper and deeper and penetrate the muscle layer to reach the plasma layer, but there is no metastasis of lymph nodes, this is stage II colorectal cancer.
And if the cancer cells start to metastasize to the lymph nodes, that is stage III colorectal cancer.
If the cancer cells have distant metastasis and invade to other places such as liver and lung, this is stage IV colorectal cancer, that is, advanced colorectal cancer.
For colorectal cancer without distant metastasis, surgery is the most direct and effective way to cure colorectal cancer. Even if patients have local or distant metastases, through active multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment, quite a number of patients can achieve the effect of radical cure, and even for patients who cannot be cured, many of them can survive with tumor for a long time with appropriate comprehensive treatment.