Study: CT Colonography Better Option for Colorectal Cancer Screening

CT colonography (CTC) is a minimally invasive colon imaging test that was found to be highly effective for identifying colorectal cancer in a recently published study. In fact, CTC even did slightly better than the traditional colonoscopy. This is proof that you should feel comfortable with the use of CTC for accurately evaluating the colon for cancer.

Over 11,000 patients from almost 50 studies who underwent both CTC and colonoscopy were included in this analysis. Results showed that CTC had a very high sensitivity of 96.1 percent for detecting colon cancer, which was actually slightly higher than the sensitivity for colonoscopy, which was 94.7 percent. Other studies have shown that CTC is also effective for the detection of clinically significant polyps, which are growths in the colon that can develop into cancer.

Some of the signs and symptoms of colon cancer include a change in bowel habits, bloating, abdominal pain, bleeding from the rectum or blood in the stool, as well as weakness, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. Medicare and many health insurance companies now include coverage for diagnostic CTC studies (when the patient has signs or symptoms of colon cancer), so you should check with your doctor's office and health insurance if you want this test.