Results of surgical treatment for familial polyposis coli

Seventy-seven patients with polyposis coli operated on at The Mount Sinai Hospital in the last 40 years were studied. Forty-two patients had a subtotal colectomy. Sixteen were found to have colon cancer at the time of operation, and a second rectal cancer developed in 50 percent of the survivors within 1 to 13 years after subtotal colectomy. Rectal cancer subsequently developed in only 3 of 23 patients without colon cancer. Thirty-five patients had total proctocolectomy or total colectomy with mucosal proctectomy and ileoanal anastomosis. Recurrent adenomatous polyps developed in two patients after mucosal proctectomy. A villous adenoma with carcinoma in situ of the ileum developed in one patient 30 years after total proctocolectomy and ileostomy. Another patient died from a periampullary carcinoma 24 years after subtotal colectomy. It seems that as the life expectancy of patients with polyposis improves, the incidence of small bowel and duodenal cancers may be expected to increase.