Just recently, Melanoma News Today reported on how a new device allowing an early non-invasive examination of melanoma and other skin cancer lesions has been developed by a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering, which uses three common spectroscopic techniques — raman spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. It appears that this novel approach for improving the manner in which Melanoma is diagnosed is gaining traction in the medical community, as a recent poster study on how utilizing multispectral digital devices can improve the accuracy of Melanoma skin lesions while avoiding unnecessary skin biopsies was presented at the American Academy of Dermatology’s Summer Meeting, held from August 6-10 in Chicago.
The poster revealed the findings of a study using a multispectral digital skin lesion analysis device (MSDSLA), which was used in a screening process of 137 suspect lesions that were chosen to be biopsied in order to rule out a melanoma diagnosis. The researchers reported that, after a post-hoc analysis was performed, the lesions that were observed were then categorized using a re-excision recommendation from a local pathologist.
What the researchers found was that MSDSLA technology managed to accurately identify one invasive melanoma lesion and fifteen moderately dysplastic nevi, all of which had also been biopsied by a dermatologist in order to determine the accuracy of the multispectral device. In addition, 100% of the lesions that the device predicted to be benign based on low disorganization readings were also confirmed histologically to be benign as well, thus further establishing MSDSLA as an emerging, new Melanoma diagnostic tool.
This isn’t the first time that similar research has shown MSDSLA to be accurate and reliable. Previously, studies have shown the method to yield a negative predictive value of 98.1%, as well as a high level of confidence that when lesions are found to have low disorganization readings, they are in fact benign.
The researchers concluded their presentation by asserting that, “consideration of MSDSLA’s negative predictive value may help dermatologists reduce biopsies of histologically benign lesions.”
