An Italian study has found that CT-Colonography (virtual colonoscopy) can effectively be used to screen patients at higher risk for colorectal cancer. Reported at the Eighth Annual Symposium on Virtual Colonoscopy in Boston, the IMPACT study was over 90 percent sensitive in finding adenomas larger than 1 centimeter.
Unlike previous virtual colonoscopy studies that included only patients at average risk for colorectal cancer, the IMPACT trial focused on patients with higher risk because of a previous adenoma or whose family member had an adenoma or colorectal cancer diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 65.
203 polyps and 42 colorectal cancers were found in the 934 individuals who were screened.
CT-colonography found 90.7 percent of adenomas at least 10 millimeters in size and 90.4 percent of those at least 6 millimeters.
The test accurately diagnosed polyps or no polyps in 89 percent of all patients in the trial.
Researchers led by principal investigator Dr. Daniele Regge and Dr. Andrea Laghi, who reported results at the symposium, said that,
The results suggest CTC could be introduced as an alternative for surveillance of patients with an increased personal risk or a family history of colorectal cancer
SOURCE: Diagnostic Imaging Online, October 15, 2007.
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