Melanoma Diagnosis with DRS

Figure 1. Malignant melanoma (level IV). Field of view is 2mm [more images]

Malignant melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, and one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. Despite this, it has only begun to achieve a high level of public perception in recent years. It is a cancer of melanocytes, the pigment producing cells normally located at the dermal-epidermal junction.

The biggest danger associated with melanoma is its spreading to other locations in the body in a process called metastasis. Melanoma is resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy so the only realistic option for effective treatment is complete excision of the lesion at an early stage. Fortunately, if the melanoma is caught early, it has a cure rate that approaches 100%.

Most existing melanoma detection strategies, including observing change in the lesion over time, are much less effective in detecting early stage melanomas. Non-specialist doctors who may not see many melanomas can be particularly inconsistent in their level of accuracy. The goal of this research is to develop a device which could be used to rapidly differentiate melanomas from benign lesions by both specialist dermatologists and GPs.

OBEL ran a clinical trial of a prototype DRS system for melanoma classification. During the trial, spectra were collected from both benign and malignant lesions and correlated with histopathological data. The spectra were subjected to a number of different analysis techniques to extract features of the spectra useful for discrimination. Details of the work appear in a journal article.

Figure 2. Using the DRS system to record spectra from a possible melanoma in the clinic. Photo courtesy of Subiaco Post