These are small growth on the inner lining of the colon or rectum. They are common affecting around 1 in 4 people at some point in their lives. They don’t normally have any symptoms; however, some people might get symptoms like blood in the stool or have positive Faecal immunohistochemical testing (FIT test) that detects small amount of blood in faeces (stool), which would not normally be visible. Although bowel polyps are not normally cancerous, they will need to be removed if found, as if left untreated some may eventually turn into cancer.
Polyps can be of various types;
Hyperplastic polyps are usually small and generally regarded as harmless.
Adenomas are a common type of polyps. There is a small risk that that adenoma may, in time, be cancerous. This change usually takes place after number of years.
Polyposis syndromes: They are group of rare inherited conditions that cause multiple bowel polyps in young people that have a high chance of developing into bowel cancer. This includes Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC)/Lynch’s syndrome, Gardner’s syndrome, Turcot’s syndrome, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, Cowden’s disease, and Familial juvenile polyposis.