Non-cancerous intestinal growth. Light micrograph of a section through the lining of the colon (large intestine), showing a benign (non-cancerous) neoplasm (dark pink, upper left) of surface epithelium. A neoplasm is an abnormal proliferation of cells. Benign neoplasms of this type tend to grow in the form of warty, papillary, or nodular outgrowths from the surface and don't infiltrate downwards into the sub-epithelial layers (light pink). However similar cancerous (malignant) neoplasms do spread into the sub-epithelial connective tissues and further; see image: C003/0273.