'Virtual' colonoscopy more expensive

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A "virtual" colonoscopy using a computer tomography scanner is considerably more expensive than the traditional procedure, according to U.S. researchers.

"Virtual colonoscopy will certainly play a role in the future of colon cancer screening," said gastroenterologist Dr. Richard S. Bloomfeld of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "It is important to understand the implications of findings outside the colon before we advocate wide-spread use of this technology."

The researchers evaluated CTC for use as a colorectal cancer screening tool in an average risk population. It revealed that findings outside the colon -- such as lung nodules and indeterminate kidney lesions -- added about $231 to each CTC performed because of the need for additional testing. Those tests often reveal that the extra-colonic findings are benign.

Virtual colonoscopy, also known as CT-colonography, or CTC, allows doctors to use CT scanners to look at the colon to detect polyps -- small growths in the colon that may become cancerous if they are not removed -- and cancers.

The findings were presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual scientific meeting in Las Vegas and were published in the September issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology.