It could be several years before the camera wins approval. The developers plan the first human trials in the United States this year. It's on the cutting edge. But you don't have the flexibility with this camera to look around or go back. The digestive tract is a 30-foot network of organs that follows a coiled route through the body.
Endoscopes can view much of the system down through the throat and up through the colon.
Endoscopy has become a routine hospital procedure to diagnose and treat many digestive ailments, including colorectal cancer, the second-leading cancer killer in the United States with more than 56,000 deaths in 1999. In March, Today show host Katie Couric invited millions of viewers to share in her colonoscopy. However, remote portions of the small intestine are difficult to examine without very long and uncomfortable equipment or exploratory surgery. That inspired the capsule's development by Swain and Given Imaging, an Israeli company. . The initial test results were published today in the journal Nature.