A Tour the Colon Part 1/2
Dr. Travis Stork: Now, joining us is gastroenterologist Dr. Jeffrey Sherman. He is from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Right now, he’s inside the prevent cancer super colon to fill us all in on the most common problems that affect us in our colon. Dr. Sherman, thanks for being with us.
Dr. Jeffrey Sherman: Thanks for having me.
Dr. Travis Stork: So, it’s not everyday we have a colon on the show. But a lot of people do ask themselves what kinds of conditions may predispose me to bad things like colon cancer. First and foremost, Sharon’s question -- Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Dr. Jeffrey Sherman: Irritable Bowel Syndrome does not lead to colon cancer per se but initial symptoms may mean something more than just Irritable Bowel Syndrome. So, work needs to be done. But once we’ve reached the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, that isn’t necessarily or no, it is not a precursor to colon cancer, unlike inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, which does have a increased risk of colon cancer.
Dr. Jim Sears: I'm just curious, behind you, that big colon, is that kind of what I look like?
Dr. Jeffrey Sherman: You look like this in the normal colon tissue segment, your colon of course, Dr. Sears, is much smaller than this. My scope fits in your colon and not my whole self, okay? But this is a good model of the colon and we can kind of take a look and see what’s some of the abnormalities you might find on the colonoscopy are. What we’d like to see most often is the normal colon tissue, a very smooth lining, pink surface, folds of the colon, normally spaced apart, very healthy pink tissue with small little vessels. Feeding the tissue is oxygen that are visible right here under the mucosal surface. The key is the normal fold pattern and vascular pattern along, noticing how smooth it is.
What we’d like to see throughout the entire colon. However, other abnormalities can occur and I mentioned inflammatory bowel disease, one of those is Ulcerative Colitis or Colitis where the tissue turns a darker red, very swollen or edematous. The fold pattern is distorted. The vascular pattern of blood vessels under the mucosal surface are now no longer there. And then you see ulcers and blood vessels visible to the surface of the mucosal. This is seen in patients with bloody diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, and cramps, and a typical infectious processes need to be moved out as well. But also colitis is one of those conditions that can lead to colon cancer.
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