Colonic tubular adenomas and intestinal spirochaetosis: an incompatible association

Abstract

Two cases of tubulovillous adenoma and adjacent colonic mucosa were studied in which intestinal spirochaetosis had heavily colonized the non-neoplastic but not the neoplastic epithelium. Ultrastructural and histochemical studies were performed and we postulate that the reason for this disparity is the normal microvillous pattern of the non-neoplastic epithelium which facilitates colonization by the spirochaetes.