CT-Scan Based Colorectal Cancer Screening
Raise your hand if you enjoy going through a colon cancer screening. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Terrible experience. Drinking the goo is terrible, pooping your brains out is terrible. getting anally inflated is terrible, and having something snaked up your hiney: terrible.
Colorectal cancer kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. Many avoid the traditional colonoscopy because it’s such a terrible experience. This new method uses CT scans (Computed Tomography) to take detailed pictures of the patient’s colon and look for colorectal neoplasia in the same way a traditional colonoscopy does. In tests, the CT method proved to be slightly less effective and accurate. But as you can imagine, it’s light years more tolerable.
One drawback of CT scans is they produce radiation. This is true for any CT, whether used for colorectal cancer screening or other diagnosis. Radiation can cause cancer, and the idea that a patient has to live through a bit more to check for cancer is a little ironic I guess. I think this type of screening may be used for other cancers before long. Prostate cancer and breast cancer checks are also not the most pleasant, and I think the medical industry will be compelled to try to find less invasive and more tolerated methods.