Professor Pickhardt calls for more targeted screening of colorectal cancer

BIR president Andy Rogers, Canon Medical managing director Mark Hitchman and Professor Perry Pickhardt.

Professor Perry Pickhardt delivered the eponymous Mayneord Memorial Lecture titled ‘The natural history of colorectal neoplasia?’ to an audience of radiologists, radiographers, scientists and oncologists at UKRCO in Liverpool.

In his talk, Professor Pickhardt said colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women.  It is a preventable disease and even early cancers are effectively treatable.  In many parts of the developed world it is either under-screened or not screened at all, while in parts of the USA arguably too many colonoscopies are performed, which reveal many tiny polyps, very few of which will ever turn into cancer.  He went on to describe the optimum screening process using CT colonography and then outlined the polyp to cancer sequence, CT colonography overview, and covered static and dynamic predictors.  He finished with a positive message that a prolonged window exists for colorectal cancer prevention and early detection and that CT colonography is highly attractive for population screening.

Read the full report on page 2 of the August 2018 issue of RAD Magazine.