Morphologic spectrum of gastrointestinal polyps and polypoid lesions - A five year study

Introduction: Polyps begin as small elevations of the mucosa and polyps are most common in the colorectal region. The neoplastic polyps are important because they have a risk of transformation into malignancy. The role of the Pathologist is to identify any dysplastic changes and inform the clinician regarding the risk of development of carcinoma. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of polyps and polypoid lesions of 5 year duration from January 2013 to December 2017. The biopsies were stained with Haematoxylin & Eosin and studied under light microscope. Results: 107 cases of gastrointestinal polyps and polypoid lesions were included in our study. Hyperplastic polyps were the most common polyps found in our study. The most common site was rectum and stomach. Variety of lesions included in our study are multiple Peutz Jeghers (PJ) polyps, adenocarcinoma arising in PJ polyp, neuroendocrine tumours, and an angiomatous polyp. Conclusion: Gastrointestinal polyps are divergent lesions. Differentiation of neoplastic polyps from non-neoplastic polyps is important in view of adenoma- carcinoma sequence developing in neoplastic polyps. Identification of hamartomatous polyps is also crucial since they are associated with syndromes and may unusually transform in to cancers. Pathologists play a key role in diagnosis of neoplastic polyps and polyps associated with syndromes. In our study hyperplastic polyps were most common with a variety of other lesions.