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What Does "Probably Mild Irregular Wall Thickening Of The Rectosigmoid Colon" Mean?
Question: I recently had a colonoscopy, followed by a CT scan. I've also had rectal bleeding. Waiting for biopsy results.
The findings are:
" Probably mild irregular wall thickening of the rectosigmoid colon."
Can you explain what that means? Does this point to benign or cancer?
The findings are:
" Probably mild irregular wall thickening of the rectosigmoid colon."
Can you explain what that means? Does this point to benign or cancer?
Brief Answer:
More information is needed
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
It is a common "problem" in everyday medical practice that a patient comes to me (or to other colleagues) holding a paper with an abnormal result. If those results could be assessed as they are on the paper then we wouldn't need doctors but just an index of abnormal findings and their explanation!
Unfortunately many factors come into play and statistics have a great role in it.
The doctor has to assess all the factors and decide which is the most probable cause for any given situation. I'll mention a simple example: if a patient has a runny nose, fever and headache, is it possible that the patient has influenza?
The answer is that if there's an influenza epidemic then it's 99% that this is influenza.
If there's no epidemic then the chances are much lower.
So you see, same symptoms but different chances for the same diagnosis.
It's the same with you. This CT finding can be caused by both benign and malignant causes. The rest of the information will give the most accurate estimation. For example, what did the gastroenterologist write on his report? Did he find an irregular, bleeding mass? Gastroenterologists can sometimes make educated guesses about the nature of the masses they approach. Do you have a family history of colon cancer? What were the patient's ages (of your family members, I mean, when cancer was diagnosed).
If you did have a positive history for cancer (particularly at an early age) and the gastroenterologist reported possibly malignant signs then this would much more likely be malignant. If no history and no malignant signs are there, then your " Probably mild irregular wall thickening of the rectosigmoid colon." would probably be benign!
The bottomline is that you can't accurately judge a single finding, you need the whole story... And of course no doctor will speak about cancer until biopsy proves it.
I hope I was clear enough in my answer!
If you'd need further clarifications, I'll be glad to provide them.
Kind Regards!
More information is needed
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
It is a common "problem" in everyday medical practice that a patient comes to me (or to other colleagues) holding a paper with an abnormal result. If those results could be assessed as they are on the paper then we wouldn't need doctors but just an index of abnormal findings and their explanation!
Unfortunately many factors come into play and statistics have a great role in it.
The doctor has to assess all the factors and decide which is the most probable cause for any given situation. I'll mention a simple example: if a patient has a runny nose, fever and headache, is it possible that the patient has influenza?
The answer is that if there's an influenza epidemic then it's 99% that this is influenza.
If there's no epidemic then the chances are much lower.
So you see, same symptoms but different chances for the same diagnosis.
It's the same with you. This CT finding can be caused by both benign and malignant causes. The rest of the information will give the most accurate estimation. For example, what did the gastroenterologist write on his report? Did he find an irregular, bleeding mass? Gastroenterologists can sometimes make educated guesses about the nature of the masses they approach. Do you have a family history of colon cancer? What were the patient's ages (of your family members, I mean, when cancer was diagnosed).
If you did have a positive history for cancer (particularly at an early age) and the gastroenterologist reported possibly malignant signs then this would much more likely be malignant. If no history and no malignant signs are there, then your " Probably mild irregular wall thickening of the rectosigmoid colon." would probably be benign!
The bottomline is that you can't accurately judge a single finding, you need the whole story... And of course no doctor will speak about cancer until biopsy proves it.
I hope I was clear enough in my answer!
If you'd need further clarifications, I'll be glad to provide them.
Kind Regards!
Note: For further queries related to kidney problems Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Ashwin Bhandari
Answered by
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