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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Virtual Colonoscopy
Aired December 02, 2003 - 08:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It is a procedure that lets doctors use computer-generated images to find abnormal growth in the colon. And some say these virtual colonoscopies are not only less invasive, they are also more accurate than the standard screening. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center with more.
Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Yes, it's sort of like a movie of your colon, and a very accurate movie, and possibly a less evasive way to give you a head's-up about colon cancer. We are talking about virtual colonoscopies. This is something that's been around for quite some time now. Take a look at some of these images here. Basically, a small catheter is still placed to actually inflate the colon. And then CT scans are used to sort of give you a run-through through the colon.
You can see some of the actual pictures here. That's a picture of what the run-through actually looks like, that green line. And as you're going through the colon, your target is to try and find any kind of polyps. Those are abnormalities. And now a new study actually looking at three military hospitals, over 1,200 patients, finds that this virtual colonoscopy, a less invasive way to do a colonoscopy, actually pretty sensitive, finding polyps about eight millimeters in size. That's pretty small. Finding those polyps 92 percent of the time, and that is a target, that is goal of these sorts of procedures. So this may something that's around for a while now, Anderson.
COOPER: You say it's sensitive. Is it as effective as a regular colonoscopy?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, that's a good question. The deal with the colonoscopy is that once you find one of these polyps, you want to take it out, and that's why actually doing a colonoscopy the conventional way, the old-fashioned way, you actually can do both things. You can not only diagnose the polyp, but actually remove it at the same time as well.
With the virtual colonoscopy, the situation you might get yourself into, is you actually end up doing two procedures. You do the virtual colonscopy, you see the abnormality, and then you've got to have the real colonscopy anyway.
So the doctors we talked to say it's not ready to replace conventional colonoscopy, but it may be something that's done for low- risk patients, patients that are likely not to have any abnormalities.
There's a lot of benefits to these sorts of virtual colonoscopies. Some of them are obvious. You don't need sedation, for example, with the virtual colonscopy. There's less risk of actually damaging the colon. It takes only 15 minutes.
So, Anderson, when you think about the fact that less than half the people out there actually get the screening test as necessary, this might be a way to get more people to actually get screened.
COOPER: Let's talk about cost, though. How much does it cost? And does insurance cover it, or will they?
GUPTA: Right. Like anything else, when a new procedure sort of starts to become more widely available, insurance companies usually take a while to catch up. Insurance companies not covering this procedure right now. But the flip side of it is that it's cheaper than a regular colonoscopy, about $1,000 for the virtual colonoscopy versus about 2,000 for conventional colonoscopy.
It's only available in about 50 centers around the country right now, but we think these studies probably are going to provide some argument that they will become more widely available, and perhaps insurance will cover it. That may be a year or so down the line still -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 2, 2003 - 08:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It is a procedure that lets doctors use computer-generated images to find abnormal growth in the colon. And some say these virtual colonoscopies are not only less invasive, they are also more accurate than the standard screening. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from the CNN Center with more.
Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Yes, it's sort of like a movie of your colon, and a very accurate movie, and possibly a less evasive way to give you a head's-up about colon cancer. We are talking about virtual colonoscopies. This is something that's been around for quite some time now. Take a look at some of these images here. Basically, a small catheter is still placed to actually inflate the colon. And then CT scans are used to sort of give you a run-through through the colon.
You can see some of the actual pictures here. That's a picture of what the run-through actually looks like, that green line. And as you're going through the colon, your target is to try and find any kind of polyps. Those are abnormalities. And now a new study actually looking at three military hospitals, over 1,200 patients, finds that this virtual colonoscopy, a less invasive way to do a colonoscopy, actually pretty sensitive, finding polyps about eight millimeters in size. That's pretty small. Finding those polyps 92 percent of the time, and that is a target, that is goal of these sorts of procedures. So this may something that's around for a while now, Anderson.
COOPER: You say it's sensitive. Is it as effective as a regular colonoscopy?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, that's a good question. The deal with the colonoscopy is that once you find one of these polyps, you want to take it out, and that's why actually doing a colonoscopy the conventional way, the old-fashioned way, you actually can do both things. You can not only diagnose the polyp, but actually remove it at the same time as well.
With the virtual colonoscopy, the situation you might get yourself into, is you actually end up doing two procedures. You do the virtual colonscopy, you see the abnormality, and then you've got to have the real colonscopy anyway.
So the doctors we talked to say it's not ready to replace conventional colonoscopy, but it may be something that's done for low- risk patients, patients that are likely not to have any abnormalities.
There's a lot of benefits to these sorts of virtual colonoscopies. Some of them are obvious. You don't need sedation, for example, with the virtual colonscopy. There's less risk of actually damaging the colon. It takes only 15 minutes.
So, Anderson, when you think about the fact that less than half the people out there actually get the screening test as necessary, this might be a way to get more people to actually get screened.
COOPER: Let's talk about cost, though. How much does it cost? And does insurance cover it, or will they?
GUPTA: Right. Like anything else, when a new procedure sort of starts to become more widely available, insurance companies usually take a while to catch up. Insurance companies not covering this procedure right now. But the flip side of it is that it's cheaper than a regular colonoscopy, about $1,000 for the virtual colonoscopy versus about 2,000 for conventional colonoscopy.
It's only available in about 50 centers around the country right now, but we think these studies probably are going to provide some argument that they will become more widely available, and perhaps insurance will cover it. That may be a year or so down the line still -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
