Virtual biopsy can tell whether colon polyp is benign without removal

From Virtual Colonoscopy to Virtual biopsy to tell whether colon polyp is benign without removal, as the article states it is "real time" pathology...so it could appear that both procedures could be done on a "virtual" procedure...thus could have the potential of avoiding full on colonoscopies...as that has always been one of the downsides to a virtual colonoscopy is having to do the real thing if anything is found, thus there are 2 procedures involved when one could have done both....BD

A probe so sensitive that it can tell whether or not a cell living within the human body is veering towards cancer development may revolutionize how future colonoscopies are done, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.
Investigators have found that technology known as a high resolution confocal endomicroscopy probe system can determine whether a colon polyp is benign (not precancerous) - without having to remove it for examination by a pathologist.
But more importantly, it was correct 98 percent of the time in flagging polyps that were benign, which would then not need to be removed for biopsy. The Mayo researchers, who are the first in the U.S. to comprehensively test the system in the colon, believe they can push accuracy close to 100 percent with more research.
Wallace says the technology, which is also being tested in the esophagus, has the capacity to fundamentally change how many different endoscopy procedures are done. “This will shift our role from one of going in and getting tissue for a pathologist to examine to one in which we can do the pathology ourselves,” Dr. Wallace says. “This is instantaneous, real time pathology.”