Fixing flat polyps

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cancer killer among men and women in the U.S. A colonoscopy can spot and remove signs of cancer, which can show up as polyps. But sometimes these polyps are flat and very difficult to remove.

Trees, houses, barns -- Ken Kurtz has filled the walls of his house with his own masterpieces

"I'm running out of places to put the paintings!" Ken Kurtz told ABC30.

The 71-year-old took up painting 12 years ago when he retired.

"I was hooked!" said Kurtz.

But Ken almost had to put his hobby on hold when a diagnosis from his doctor wasn't so "picture-perfect." A routine colonoscopy showed Ken had a suspicious polyp that could be cancerous.

"Once you know it's there," said Kurtz, "then you worry about it a little bit."

Most polyps can be easily removed, but Ken's was flat. In prior years that meant cutting out two feet of his colon to take out the difficult polyp.

"You can imagine, taking out half of your intestine, large intestine, is a big operation, a major operation," Emre Gorgun, M.D., Department of Colorectal Surgery and Staff Surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Colorectal Surgery and Quality Improvement Officer told ABC30.

But Cleveland Clinic surgeon Dr. Gorgun offered Ken a new option called ESD. During a colonoscopy, they place a solution under the lesion. Then they use special instruments to make small cuts and remove the flat polyp -- while leaving the colon intact.

"Almost doing a surgery outside the body, we do a surgery inside of the body, inside of the colon," Dr. Gorgun said.

Ken's polyp was not cancerous. He's happy he avoided an unnecessary operation, and can get back to focusing on his art.

Another study by Dr. Gorgun shows only 9 percent of polyps that are removed are cancerous. That means most of the time a colon is removed, it's an unnecessary procedure. Dr. Gorgun says he hopes the ESD technique will prevent more patients from needlessly losing their colons.

For more information on this report, please contact:

Caroline Auger
Public Relations
Cleveland Clinic
augerc@ccf.org
(216) 636-5874