Endoscopic ultrasonography in the preoperative staging of colorectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Endoscopic ultrasonography presents a significant progress in imaging methods for the examination of the digestive system and is commonly used in cancer staging. The aim of this study was to quantify the potential of this modality for diagnosis and staging of colorectal cancer.


METHODS
Eighty patients with histologically proven colorectal cancer were included in this study. All patients were preoperatively diagnosed by colonoscopy and biopsies, abdominal computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasonography. The latter was also used to evaluate the depth of tumor invasion and presence of lymph node or distant metastasis prior to surgery.


RESULTS
Endoscopic ultrasonography presented 100% sensitivity in cancer detection versus 60% for computed tomography (P < 0.001). Endoscopic Ultrasonography sensitivity in T, N, M and TNM staging was 93.8%, 93.8%, 92.5% and 82.5% with corresponding specificities of 99.2%, 97.9%, 92.5% and 94.2%. Overall, Endoscopic Ultrasonography staging of the patients did not present statistically significant differences with histological staging (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Endoscopic ultrasonography is of satisfactory accuracy in diagnosis and preoperative staging of colorectal cancer.
Kalantzis
Ch
Ch
Department of Gastroenterology, N.I.M.T.S. Hospital, Athens, Greece. n.kalantzis@eudoramail.com
Markoglou
C
C
Gabriel
P
P
Papagiannis
P
P
Tarazis
S
S
Bramis
I
I
Bastounis
H
H
Kalantzis
N
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D019160:Endosonography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity