COLONIC CRYPTS: SIZE MATTERS

The sequential molecular changes that lead to colon cancer are being unravelled. The sequence of related histological changes is less well understood. Wong and colleagues have used microdissection techniques to isolate individual crypts from normal and neoplastic colonic mucosa. The authors (who include two Wongs and a Wright) have shown that, unlike normal mucosa, adenomas and hyperplastic polyps grow by crypt fission and their crypts are larger than normal. Furthermore, adenomas show cell proliferation up to the crypt surface indicating loss of control of the cell cycle. Interesting, buthistologists still seem to have some catching up to do in order to match the progress of molecular geneticists. See 212