Colonoscopy: Not Just for Colon Cancer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Virtual colonoscopy is being hailed as a life-saving diagnostic tool. In fact, a new study shows it's invaluable for spotting colon cancer. But now, it may also help diagnose other diseases ... And one man may owe his life to it.

Sculptor Stephen Hollingsworth thought he was the picture of health ... That was until he went in for a routine colonoscopy. "They called me a few days later and they said, 'Your colon's fine, but we found this lump on your kidney.'"

Hollingsworth had a virtual colonoscopy. It's a CT scan that looks inside the entire torso.

"We are sitting inside the colon and looking around at the wall of the colon from the inside," Judy Yee, M.D., tells Ivanhoe.

But the scan also allows doctors to see more. Computer software enables them to zoom in on 3-D images and examine anything suspicious. In Hollingsworth's case, Dr. Yee, a radiologist at San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital, saw something disturbing...

"What we found was a mass on his left kidney that did not look benign," she says.

In a recent study, 500 patients were given a virtual colonoscopy. Forty-five of them were diagnosed with serious diseases outside the colon, problems like kidney cancer, lung lesions and even aneurysms. Doctors say it's not just what the test found but when.

"When we do find diseases outside the colon, often it's at an earlier stage of the disease when it's more easily resected, more easily cured," Dr. Yee says.

That was the case for Hollingsworth. Usually, patients with kidney cancer don't have symptoms until it's too late. But the virtual colonoscopy found his before it spread.

Surgeons removed Hollingsworth's cancerous tumor and say he's doing fine. "I feel lucky," he says. "If I hadn't had this thing, it would have progressed and probably would have killed me." Now, he's looking forward to many happy and healthy years.

Doctors recommend everyone over age 50 should have a colon screening, but only 40 percent of people actually do. They're hoping with this new minimally invasive colonoscopy, more people will be encouraged to have the screening done. The new scan is just as accurate as a standard colonoscopy when performed correctly.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Steve Tokar
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San Francisco VA Medical Center
4150 Clement Street, 151 NC
San Francisco, CA 94121-1545
(415) 221-4810 ext. 5202
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