[pazimzadeh]

> If the endoscopist discovers a suspicious polyp, then it’s promptly removed, thus nipping the cancer before it spreads

So, kind of like how pruning a plant does not necessarily weaken it.

[Findecanor]

When the polyp has been nipped, it is gone. If you have a colon with no polyps (left) in it, you should be safe from colon cancer for at least a decade (how long polyps take to develop from mutation into a tumour).

[pazimzadeh]

If that's the case, then why was there no difference in mortality in the study?

Possible reasons I thought of:

- cancer cells metastasize/spread much earlier than we previously thought (https://www.statnews.com/2016/12/14/cancer-cells-spread-meta...)

- what if the presence of polyps is not all bad? i.e. maybe they keep the immune system in a tumor-responsive state, or they locally deplete nutrients that would otherwise feed other pre-cancerous cells?