The Usefulness of Computed Tomographic Colonography for Colorectal Cancer in the Elderly

The gold standard for detecting colorectal cancer is total colonoscopy （TCS）. However, the physical　burden of TCS is great in elderly individuals with poor performance status and numerous underlying diseases. Computed tomographic colonography （CTC） is a suitable examination method in the elderly because it is simple, less invasive, and requires no special skill. On the other hand, it is inferior to TCS for detecting 0-II type colorectal cancer. We investigated 21 patients aged >__- 75 years with resectable colorectal cancer who underwent CTC at our hospital from January 2013 to March 2014. CTC was well tolerated by elderly colorectal cancer patients and was able to detect lesions on the oral side of stenotic colorectal cancer. In addition, although fusion images of 3-dimensional （3D）-CT angiography and CTC were useful in disease staging of colorectal cancer and navigation-guided surgery, CTC was not effective in the detection of 0-II type colorectal cancer.