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General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
     
    Slide 21: Familial polyposis of the colon.
     
     
    The changes are subtle here.  You really must look at the tissue on the slide before going to the microscope. You will see little areas of thickening of the mucosa and that's about it.  In some areas there may even be a polypoid formation but the earliest changes are not easy to see.

    See this slide with the virtual microscope.

    This slide shows the subtle changes in the bowel mucosa that can lead to big troubles later. You will need to be on low power to initially identify the mucosal areas of abnormality. Once you go to higher power, note the "branching" margins of the glands of the polyps and the "piling up" of the epithelium. You should have no trouble finding mitotic figures even though these lesions are benign. This congenital condition often leads to cancer of the colon later in life. Cancers of glandular origin are called adenocarcinomas, and frequently have histologic patterns similar to the organ in which they arose. To reemphasize the point, however, what we are looking at here is benign. 


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