| Theme | Current Status of Colorectal Cancer Screening | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Colon Cancer Screening Using CT Colonography | |
| Publish Date | 2008/02 | |
| Author | Mitsuru Matsuki | Image Diagnostic Center, Shiroyama Hospital |
| Author | Yuki Inada | Image Diagnostic Center, Shiroyama Hospital |
| Author | Hiroshi Kawasaki | Digestive Surgery Center, Shiroyama Hospital |
| Author | Kazuhiro Miyoshi | Digestive Surgery Center, Shiroyama Hospital |
| Author | Takashi Ishibashi | Digestive Surgery Center, Shiroyama Hospital |
| Author | Koichi Kitano | Medicsight company |
| [ Summary ] | Colorectal cancer, despite being largely preventable or at least curable if detected early, remains a major killer because of poor adherence to existing screening strategies. Therefore, less invasive, less time consuming and less expensive methods are required. In recent years, MDCT scans, which use a larger number of detectors, have made it possible to collect a considerable amount of thin-slice data within a short time. The resulting increased spatial resolution has facilitated CT colonography (CTC) for three-dimensional evaluation of the colon. In Europe and the United States, CTC, focusing on the detection of cororectal polyps derived from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence, is ideally suited for population screening of asymptomatic adults. However, in Japan, CTC has not become popular in clinical practice, because the visualization of flat and depressed type lesions with malignant potential has not been prospectively examined and an interpretation of CTC is time consuming. Therefore, further prospective studies in regard to the visualization of flat and depressed type lesions are required. To decrease interpretation time and improve diagnostic accuracy of CTC, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) is presently noticed. Moreover, it is thought that the whole body CT examinations including the colon and lungs may play an important role in popularizing CTC in Japan. | |