[Morphological criteria of hyperplasia, dysplasia and incipient cancer of the large intestine].

Early stages of adenomas and hyperplastic polyps are observed when the surface of mucous membrane from 76 surgically removed colons was examined under binocular microscope and when biopsies obtained by means of the endomicroscope were studied. A close link between adenomatous and hyperplastic polyps is established and this may indicate the involvement of the latter in carcinogenesis. Besides this, it is shown that epithelial dysplasia in the adenomas may spread to the goblet cells this being followed by the development of peculiar clear cell adenomas which are mainly formed of the goblet cells with signs of altered differentiation. The observation of the adenoma remnants in 38% of the incipient carcinoma cases indicates the close connection between the adenomas and carcinoma.