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I Had A Colonoscopy Today, And The Doctor Removed A

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Posted on Mon, 17 Aug 2020
Question: I had a colonoscopy today, and the doctor removed a large polyp. he sent it out for a biopsy but said he felt it was somtheing I shouldn't be concerned about. Can they have an idea of the likelihood of it being cancerous just by looking at it?
I know that to get the real answer I need to wait for the biopsy, but my question is
Does the Doctor performing the colonoscopy have an idea if a polyp is cancerous by sight?
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Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (1 hour later)
Brief Answer:
Yes but no one can predict it 100% accurately.

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you for choosing "Ask a Doctor" service,
Have seen your details,
Yes a guess could be made upon the benign/malignant nature of polyp by it's number(Benign are solitary),size(Benign less then 5 mm usually),bleeding on removal (Small amount of vascularity in benign)etc.
For example less then 5 mm polyp are usually Benign as said earlier.

But as explained these are just guesses and a true nature could be reflected only by Biopsy.
So yes chill down very likely it's benign but 100% assurance can be given only by Biopsy results.
Follow ups are welcome,
Thanks!
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T
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Answered by
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Dr. Ramesh Kumar

Gastroenterologist

Practicing since :1986

Answered : 2910 Questions

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I Had A Colonoscopy Today, And The Doctor Removed A

Brief Answer: Yes but no one can predict it 100% accurately. Detailed Answer: Hi and thank you for choosing "Ask a Doctor" service, Have seen your details, Yes a guess could be made upon the benign/malignant nature of polyp by it's number(Benign are solitary),size(Benign less then 5 mm usually),bleeding on removal (Small amount of vascularity in benign)etc. For example less then 5 mm polyp are usually Benign as said earlier. But as explained these are just guesses and a true nature could be reflected only by Biopsy. So yes chill down very likely it's benign but 100% assurance can be given only by Biopsy results. Follow ups are welcome, Thanks!