Virtual colonoscopy is more effective than traditional X-ray tests for barium enema and should be looked at as a treatment for patients with possible bowel cancer.
Despite these findings, researchers funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment and Cancer Research UK have warned that guidelines are needed before such a type of scan is used more widely.
The treatment is also regarded as CT colonography (CTC) and the experts are concerned that its ability to detect relatively unimportant findings can lead to patients being referred for unnecessary follow-up tests.
Professor Steve Halligan, based at UCL and joint-lead researcher, said: "Our trial shows that CTC is more accurate than barium enema. We hope that barium enema will now be phased out in favour of CTC and that NICE will update its guidelines.
"Although CTC can be performed on standard CT scanners available in practically all NHS hospitals, many do not have radiologists experienced with looking at CTC scans."
In the laboratory study it was found that, among patients who had CTC, 30 per cent went through a follow-up test in comparison with eight per cent who had colonoscopy.
CTC functions by taking hundreds of X-ray slices through the body, which can then be processed by a computer to create a 3D image of the inside of a bowel.
Also, patients do not need to be sedated in order to undergo the treatment, unlike colonoscopy.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of early diagnosis, said: "Survival rates for bowel cancer have doubled over the last 40 years thanks to better treatments and improved ways of diagnosing the disease.
"This research will mean that anyone with a suspected bowel cancer has two effective options to further investigate their symptoms."
