CT colonography shown to be comparable to standard colonoscopy

Computerized tomographic colonography (CTC), also known as virtual colonoscopy, is comparable to standard colonoscopy in its ability to accurately detect cancer and precancerous polyps in people ages 65 and older. This is consistent with results of the ACRIN National CT colonography Trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008, which demonstrated CT colonography can serve as a primary colorectal cancer screening option for adults ages 50 and older, but did not specifically break out data for participants ages 65 and older included in the overall analysis. The data was reported in Radiology journal. The National CT Colonography Trial recruited 2,600 study participants ages 50 and over from 15 US medical centers to compare the accuracy of state-of-the-art CT colonography to the gold standard of conventional colonoscopy. Ninety percent of the polyps 1 centimeter or larger � the polyps most likely to become cancerous � were detected by CT colonography. Polyps as small as one-half centimeter were also detected by CT colonography with a high degree of accuracy. In the secondary analysis of the 65 and over cohort, data were available for 477 study participants. CT colonography systems, such as the V3D Colon System, from Viatronix, employ virtual reality technology to produce a three-dimensional visualization that permits a thorough and minimally invasive evaluation of the entire colon and rectum. See: "The National CT Colonography Trial: Assessment of Accuracy in Participants 65 Years of Age and Older" by C. Daniel Johnson et al, Radiology, February 23, 2012, doi: 10.1148/radiol.12102177