The NYU Cancer Institute offers a variety of imaging techniques to diagnose gastrointestinal malignancies, including:
- conventional colonoscopy and virtual colonoscopy
- endoscopy
- CT scanning
- MRI scanning
- magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (noninvasive means of visualizing the bile ducts)
- endoscopic ultrasound (used to evaluate esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, and rectal cancers)
- laparoscopy
Our surgical oncologists use minimally invasive laparoscopy (often on an outpatient basis) to:
- visualize and biopsy tumors in the abdominal cavity as well as nearby lymph nodes
- perform ultrasound examinations of the liver, pancreas, and stomach
- stage the cancer (determine how far it has spread) and use the results of the examination to plan the best treatment approach
Most of these tests are available at the NYU Clinical Cancer Center. Some are performed at NYU Medical Center, located just a few blocks away.