Abstract
We studied the usefulness of CT colonography (CTC) for colon cancer diagnosis. CTC and optical colonoscopy were performed for 150 cases mainly including patients with a positive fecal occult blood test (FOBT). The results were compared and analyzed. The following are the final diagnoses given to the patients: advanced colon cancer: 41 cases; early cancer: 25 cases; adenoma: 74 cases; hyperplasia: 3 cases; submucosal tumor: 1 case; and no lesion: 6 cases. In terms of diagnostic performance of CTC, accuracy was found to be 96%, sensitivity was found to be 97.9%, and specificity was found to be 50%. Cancer stage-specific sensitivity was as follows: advanced colon cancer: 100%; early cancer: 96.3%; adenoma: 71.2%; and hyperplasia: 47.4%. Lesion site-specific sensitivity was as follows: caecum: 76.2%; ascending colon: 57.6%; transverse colon: 66.2%; descending colon: 83.3%; sigmoid colon: 85.1%; and rectum: 78.0%. Lesion size-specific sensitivity was as follows: 2 to 5 mm: 56.7%; 6 to 9 mm: 88.1%; 10 mm or more: 92.5%; and 6 mm or more: 90.9%. Therefore, the diagnostic sensitivity of CTC was confirmed to be high. The results suggest that CTC would be useful for colon cancer screening.
