Document resource
Background Ten years have passed since colon capsule endoscopy became eligible for insurance coverage. Our hospital was able to visualize two cases of colon cancer, and we report them here with some discussion.Methods Case 1 involved a 72-year-old man. The patient’s chief complaint was occasional blood in his stool, and he requested further examination. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in his medical history. His current medical history was that he had occasionally experienced blood in his stool since around month X of 20XX, leading to his outpatient visit. He requested a capsule endoscopy as a colonoscopy option, which was performed. Since no blood was excreted on the day, nor the following day, abdominal X-ray confirmed that the cancer was lodged in the sigmoid colon. An attempt was made to remove it using an endoscope, but due to a stenosis, the fiber could not pass through and it could not be retrieved. The surgery was performed laparoscopically and the capsule was successfully retrieved. Case 2 was a 40-year-old woman who complained of blood in her stool and wanted a thorough examination. The patient’s current medical history is that since around month X of 20XX, blood has occasionally appeared in the stool during bowel movements, and so she visited the outpatient clinic. She also had hemorrhoids, but had left them untreated for a long time due to the time she spent caring for her children. A capsule endoscopy was performed, and a 25mm raised lesion was found in the rectum. This patient also underwent laparoscopic surgery and is currently under observation.Results Two cases of colon cancer were detected by colon capsule endoscopy at our hospital. The woman in Case 2 began to feel embarrassed and did not choose to undergo a colonoscopy, but cancer was discovered through colon capsule endoscopy.Conclusions This is the experience of a patient whose colon cancer was discovered through colon capsule endoscopy. In the future, to increase testing and identify new patients, improvements to pre-treatment methods, testing at home as in other countries, and expansion of insurance coverage, such as testing in remote locations, are needed.