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The Computer Colonic Polyps Detection Based on Computed Tomography Colonography project aims to develop a fast, non-invasive and highly accurate method of detecting polyps in the colon that may lead to cancer.

Colon cancer is a common cause of death around the world. Most colon cancers arise initially from adenomatous polyps. Fortunately, early detection and removal of colonic polyps, especially when small, can reduce the risk of colon cancer.

However, the current technique of finding polyps is to examine the entire colon using barium enema examination or optical colonoscopy. Computed tomography colonography (CTC) is an emerging technique for detecting colorectal neoplasms and has the potential to become an effective screening procedure for examining the entire colon.

What will this research achieve?

Using current techniques, interpretation of CTC can be time-consuming and detection of polyps smaller than 10mm is particularly prone to interpretation errors. To be clinically practical, screening for colon cancer with CTC should have a short interpretation time, high sensitivity and high specificity. The objective of this project is to develop a system for automatic detection of polyps that reveals the locations of suspicious polyps and masses to radiologists.

Who will benefit?

Automatic detection of polyps has the potential to reduce radiologists’ reading time and increase diagnostic accuracy. An automatic detection system will act as a complement reader, pointing out abnormalities in the colon that a radiologist might otherwise have missed.

Research team

Dr Abd-krim Seghouane
Ju Lynn Ong
Phone: +61 2 6125 8621
Fax: +61 2 6130 6120

Address:   
Canberra Research Laboratory
Mining Industry House, Level 2
216 Northbourne Avenue
Braddon ACT 2612, Australia

Participants

Canberra Imaging Group