Thinking Big About Small Adenomas: Moving Toward "Precision Surveillance"

Quality metrics and technological advances for colonoscopy are contributing to detection of more diminutive and small adenomas, increasing the proportion of persons undergoing surveillance for non-advanced neoplasia. In this issue, Kim and colleagues report surveillance colonoscopy findings in average-risk Koreans who had one or more adenomas on a first screening colonoscopy and found a similar risk of metachronous advanced neoplasia between those with 1-2 non-advanced adenoma (the "low-risk adenoma" group) and those with 3 or more small adenomas. The validity, generalizability, and clinical implications of the findings are considered along with recent similar studies. In sum, these studies support expanding the low-risk subgroup to include up to four diminutive tubular adenomas and perhaps persons with up to four small tubular adenomas. They also prompt consideration of "precision surveillance" that considers features of not just the polyps, but of the patient and endoscopist.