I recently had a colonoscopy and my doctor said they removed an adenoma during the procedure. What is an adenoma?
An adenoma is a benign, or non-cancerous polyp or growth in the lining of the large intestine. Adenomas are considered to be precursors (the first stage) of colon and rectal cancer. All cancers of the colon and rectum begin as an adenoma, but few adenomas (only 1 or 2 out of 100) ever become malignant (cancerous). This process takes several years. When polyps are discovered during an examination of the colon (such as the colonoscopy), doctors sometimes find it hard to tell which are pre-cancerous and which are not. Even among adenomas it is impossible to tell which ones will become malignant. For this reason, all polyps in the colon and rectum are removed.
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