++
KEY CLINICAL UPDATES IN NONFAMILIAL ADENOMATOUS & SERRATED POLYPS
The US Multi-Society Task Force Guideline provide the following recommendations for repeat colonoscopy that depend on the findings at baseline colonoscopy:
– 10 years: normal colonoscopy or fewer than 20 hyperplastic polyps < 10 mm in the distal colon or rectum
– 7-10 years: 1–2 adenomas < 10 mm
– 5-10 years: 1–2 sessile serrated polyps < 10 mm
– 3-5 years: 3–4 adenomas or sessile serrated polyps < 10 mm
– 3 years: 5–10 adenomas or sessile serrated polyps < 10 mm; or 1 or more adenomas or sessile serrated polyp ≥ 10 mm or an adenoma containing villous features or high-grade dysplasia or a sessile serrated polyp with dysplasia.
++
Adenomas and serrated polyps may be non-polypoid (flat, slightly elevated, or depressed), sessile, or pedunculated (containing a stalk). Their significance is that over 95% of cases of adenocarcinoma of the colon are believed to arise from these lesions. Early detection and removal of these precancerous lesions through screening programs has resulted in a 34% reduction in deaths from colorectal cancer since 2000. It is proposed that there is a polyp → carcinoma sequence whereby nonfamilial colorectal cancer develops through a continuous process from normal mucosa to adenomatous or serrated polyp and later to carcinoma. An estimated 75% of cancers arise in adenomas after inactivation of the APC gene leads to chromosomal instability and inactivation or loss of other tumor suppressor genes. The remaining 25% of cancers arise through the serrated pathway in which hyperplastic polyps develop Kras mutations (forming traditional serrated adenomas) or BRAF oncogene activation (forming sessile serrated lesions) with widespread methylation of CpG-rich promoter regions that leads to inactivation of tumor suppressor genes or mismatch repair genes (MLH1) with microsatellite instability.
++
Adenomas (eFigures 15–32 and 15–33) are present in more than 30% of men and 20% of women over the age of 50. Most adenomas are smaller than 5 mm and have a low risk of becoming malignant. Adenomas are classified as “advanced” if they are 1 cm or larger or contain villous features or high-grade dysplasia. In the general population, the prevalence of advanced adenomas is 6%. Advanced lesions are believed to have a higher risk of harboring or progressing to malignancy. It has been estimated from longitudinal studies that it takes an average of 5 years for a medium-sized polyp to develop from normal-appearing mucosa and 10 years for a gross cancer to arise.
++++