Nearly half of men and women over the age of 50 will have a colon or rectal polyp that has the potential of turning into cancer. Fewer than 1 in 20 will actually progress to cancer.
Particularly worrisome are advanced adenomas, those polyps that are 1 centimeter or larger or have features that indicate precancerous changes.
There is no difference between men and women in the rate that advanced adenomas move on to cancer, but age makes a significant difference.
According to a German study of over 840,000 screening colonoscopies, an individual with an advanced adenoma at age 55 has 1 chance in 4 that it will become cancer within 10 years. By age 80, that risk has become 2 chances in 5 or 40 percent.
For women with advanced adenomas, ten year risk of developing cancer is 25.4% at age 55 and 40.8% at age 80. For men, the risk is very similar: 25.2% at 55 and 39.7% at 80.
SOURCE: Brenner et al. Gut, Volume 36, Number 11, November 2007.
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