John Benson, MD, medical director of Mount Desert Island Hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, reviews a 3-D image from a virtual colonoscopy. The noninvasive procedure, offered at MDI Hospital, uses a CT scanner to produce images of a patient’s colon. The procedure has received recent broad-based industry endorsement as an alternative to conventional colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer.

BAR HARBOR — The American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer have endorsed virtual colonoscopy as a screening option for colorectal cancer in average-risk adults age 50 years and older.

The endorsement is a step toward insurance reimbursement for virtual colonoscopy as the primary screening method for the disease.

Virtual colonoscopy uses a CT scanner to capture a series of images of the colon, which are then assembled with software to create detailed, 3-D images of the patient’s colon. A radiologist can then conduct a “fly through” of the colon to look for polyps or anything else that seems unusual on the inside surface of the colon.

John Benson, MD, medical director of Mount Desert Island Hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, began offering the procedure in 2004 as a more tolerable alternative to air contrast barium enema, used when traditional colonoscopy cannot examine the entire colon. While most insurance companies have covered it as a replacement for air contrast barium enema, reimbursement for virtual colonoscopy as the primary screening method only became likely with the recent endorsement.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer found in men and women in this country. In 2008, the American Cancer Society estimates it will cause nearly 50,000 deaths in the United States. Many of these lives could be saved if the disease were detected early.

Until now, colorectal cancer screening guidelines have called for average-risk adults 50 and older to have an optical colonoscopy every 10 years to screen for colorectal cancer. The procedure, in which a thin, lighted tube equipped with a camera is inserted through the rectum into the colon, is used to look for polyps, abnormal areas, or cancer. Sedation is necessary, as patients typically find the procedure uncomfortable.

In a recent study conducted by American College of Radiology Imaging Network, virtual colonoscopy was shown to be comparable to conventional colonoscopy for the detection of cancer and clinically significant polyps when state-of-the-art techniques are applied and images are read by radiologists trained in the procedure.

Benson was one of the first in northern New England to offer virtual colonoscopy for this purpose.

“By making use of MDI Hospital’s advanced imaging capabilities, we’ve been able to provide a more comfortable option for thousands of patients to prevent colorectal cancer,” Benson explained.

Benson believes strongly in the many benefits of virtual colonoscopy.

“Not only is virtual colonoscopy equally capable of detecting cancer, it’s less invasive than conventional colonoscopy, it is an excellent alternative for patients who have certain clinical risks, is better for elderly or frail patients, and in a small number of patients, can detect abnormalities outside the colon that would otherwise be undetected by conventional colonoscopy,” Benson said.

A bowel cleansing prep is still required for virtual colonoscopy, but since patients don’t need sedation and monitoring, they are usually free to leave immediately, without observation.

For more information on virtual colonoscopy, call MDI Hospital’s Medical Imaging Department at 288-5081, ext. 329, or visit cancer.org.