• Colonoscopy: Examining the whole large bowel with a flexible camera; polyps found on the way are removed (polypectomy), which prevents most bowel cancers.
• Adenoma-carcinoma sequence: The adenoma-carcinoma sequence is the step-by-step route by which a normal bowel lining becomes a polyp and the polyp becomes a cancer, as genetic faults pile up over years.
• Polyp types in the bowel: A polyp is a growth on the lining of the bowel.
• TNM staging: TNM staging is the universal system describing tumour size (T), lymph node spread (N), and distant metastasis (M).
• Colectomy: Removing the part of the colon containing the cancer along with its blood supply and lymph nodes, then joining the ends.
• Endoscopy (EGD, EUS, ERCP): Looking inside a hollow organ with a camera on a flexible tube, taking biopsies and sometimes treating on the spot.
• Grade: How abnormal the cancer cells look under the microscope, from grade 1 (close to normal, slow) to grade 3 or 4 (wildly abnormal, fast).

Biomarker results to ask for: Low-grade adenoma-like architecture in the invasive component, recorded in the pathology report, KRAS mutation, frequent in the published series.

Scans and tests linked to this cancer: Histopathology & immunohistochemistry.

Bring copies of scan reports, pathology and blood results, and a list of every medicine and supplement.

• Localised disease: Resection with adjuvant chemotherapy decided by stage as for colorectal adenocarcinoma of no special type; the deceptive biopsy appearance means the diagnosis is often made only on the resection specimen. (Colectomy, CAPOX (capecitabine, oxaliplatin), FOLFOX (5-FU, leucovorin, oxaliplatin), Colonoscopy)

From the standard of care recorded for this cancer; which apply depends on your stage and biomarkers. Ask which the team recommends and why.