The Future of Colon Cancer Screenings is Here

From a Virtual Scan to a Robot You Swallow 

Press Release

NEW JERSEY – Since the 1990s, the rate of colorectal cancer has more than doubled among adults younger than 50, according to the National Cancer Institute. Not only that, but more younger people are now dying from the disease.

This rapid increase is especially puzzling because the rate of colorectal cancer has plummeted among older adults.

One reason could be that while Baby Boomers have come to accept the need for regular colonoscopies – thank you Katie Couric – Generation X has been a bit more reluctant to get screened. 

“Although a colonoscopy is considered the “gold standard” for colon cancer screening, it’s one of those things that people really dread,” says Rosario Ligresti, M.D., chief, Division of Gastroenterology at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Thankfully, Dr. Ligresti says scientists have been working on new options. In honor of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, which starts Tuesday, March 1, Dr. Ligresti can talk about some of the new screening choices that may make colon cancer screening easier, faster and in some ways, more pleasant for patients:

-First up, there’s FIT, fecal immunochemical testing which is a stool-based test. This annual test can be done at home and doesn’t require bowel prep. FIT can detect colon cancer early,  at a treatable stage. 

-How about a Virtual or CT colonoscopy? This consists of a CT scan of your colon and rectum; a small catheter is placed inside your rectum and filled with air or carbon dioxide. The procedure takes about 10 minutes, and if your results are normal you’ll be asked to come back in five years. There’s no sedation or colon cleansing needed. You will need to drink a solution of a contrast medium for the scan, and there’s a very low level of radiation exposure. 

-You’ve probably already heard of Cologuard which uses a stool sample. With this test, you collect the sample at home and mail it to the laboratory for testing. The results show whether you have DNA changes in cells, which could mean you have colon cancer or precancerous polyps. 

-The future of colon screening could be as easy as swallowing a pill. With this new option, the patient ingests a capsule containing two miniature cameras on either end. As the capsule travels through the digestive tract, it captures images and wirelessly transmits them to a recorder the patient wears on a belt.

-There’s also a robot in a capsule, guided by magnets that maneuver through the GI tract to perform diagnostics, it is also able to perform therapeutic maneuvers, such as biopsies of tissue or polyp removal.

-If you want to have a traditional colonoscopy but gag at the thought of having to drink the liquid prep, in 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration approved prep in the form of tablets, which makers say can be an alternative to liquid colonoscopy preparations. 

-Finally, getting paid up to $575 might also make a traditional colonoscopy a bit more tolerable.