High-Tech Device Approved For Screening Melanoma

Melanoma

WASHINGTON: High-tech assistance coming soon to dermatologists, that will help them decide whether or not suspicious moles should be amputated and analyzed for Melanoma, the most dangerous of all skin cancers.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved an innovative device, named MelaFind, which creates precise digital images of growths on the skin and then utilizes a computer which scans for evidence of cancer.

MelaFind is only approved for dermatologists and can only be used for growths that have troubling traits, not obvious cancer signs.

The purpose is to diagnose melanomas quicker. Almost all cases are treatable and curable if found early – 85% of people diagnosed in the later stages die within 5 years.

In diagnosing the disease, doctors must decide what moles to biopsy by only looking at them. The majority of dermatologists can easily detect obvious signs such as a lesion larger than six millimeters, uneven edges or color. However, some are not so easy.

The hand-held attachment to the device, which is close to a blow dryer in size, beams light, which penetrates the skins surface, takes multi-colored images, which reflect the growths shape and depth. A computer then compares it to 10,000 archived images, and recommends whether or not a biopsy should be performed.

A study sponsored by the company and published in 2010 in the Archives of Dermatology, involved close to 1,300 participants, with diverse growths. MelaFind suggested correctly that a biopsy be performed on 125 out of the 127 melanomas removed.

It identified correctly around 10% of non-cancerous lesions, which is much more precise than doctors involved in the study who were right on average 4% of the time.

The intent of the study is not to demonstrate that MelaFind will save any lives, but that the device can improve dermatologist’s abilities to recognize melanoma.

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Posted by Chris Amos on Nov 21 2011. Filed under Well-Being. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.