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Virtual Biopsy Detects Colon Cancer, Minimizes Need for Surgery

Researchers at the Jacksonville, Florida, Mayo Clinic have developed a new device for use in colonoscopies that is so incredibly powerful it can zero in on just one blood cell moving through a single blood vessel, in real time.  And, in almost every case, the device made it possible for doctors to determine, during the course of the colonoscopy and without surgery, if any polyps found were benign, meaning OK to leave in place, or cancerous, meaning they need immediate surgical removal.

Determining whether a polyp was malignant or benign has thus far been determined only after surgical removal of a biopsy, which is then evaluated by a pathologist, before determining if further surgery is in order.

The new probe takes high resolution confocal endomicroscopy images of any suspicious lesions discovered during a traditional colonoscopy.  The tiny probe, only about 1/16th inch in diameter, prepares the lesion with a fluorescent contrast agent for better illumination and then magnifies the image by 1,000 times for assessment by the colonoscopy team as the colonoscopy is in progress.

During several rounds of experimentation using different methodologies, researchers were able to identify benign versus cancerous lesions with almost 89% accuracy.  The success rate for identifying benign lesions was almost 98%, although the research team plans to push the accuracy rate closer to 100%.  Accuracy of the researchers’ assessments was proven with diagnosis from a pathologist for all polyp tissue used during the study.  Using currently available technology, all polyps of concern are biopsied surgically even though about half of them prove to be benign lesions that would have required no treatment.

The Mayo Clinic’s research team, the first to comprehensively test the new imaging probe in the United States, will be in San Diego, where they will present their study and its findings at the annual meeting, Digestive Disease Week, of the gastrointestinal scientific community.  The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy provided support for the Mayo study.

Michael Wallace, MD, MPH, suggests the technology, described as virtual biopsy, used in this probe has the potential to generate fundamental change in endoscopic procedures throughout the body.  Tests involving the esophagus are currently under way.

Source: Mayo Clinic

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