Early detection of black skin cancer
Successful test of a completely new, sensitive method; avoidance of needless excisions
Black skin cancer (malignant melanoma) results from degeneration of pigment cells (melanocytes). There is continuous increase in the rate of new diseases.
Due to early induction of metastases via lymph- or bloodstream it is one of the most dangerous tumors at all. Therefore, early and reliable melanoma detection is very important.
Diagnostic methods available so far are insufficient, what is underlined by the high rate of excisions of pigmented lesions, which in retrospect turn out to be unnecessary by histological findings (more than 90%).
Now, there is a real chance to overcome this negative fact in the near future. A new method, developed at LTB Lasertechnik Berlin under the aegis of M. Scholz and D. Leupold, has been tested during the last years on patients (in vivo) in cooperation with dermatologists and histologists and has been found to be very sensitive and very safe. This method is based on a selective detection of fluorescence from the pigment melanin in skin tissue, which till now seemed to be impossible.
Measured directly at the patient, this non-invasive optical investigation gives the result in few minutes whether or not there is malignant degeneration of the lesion towards melanoma, there is no burdensome waiting time. Moreover and even more important: in case of no indication of malignant degeneration, an excision is unnecessary.
The development was partially co-financed by the European Union, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the land Berlin.
This new device for melanoma diagnostics will be presented at the exhibition:
LASER World of PHOTONICS
23-26 May 2011, Fairground Munich
BMBF-Research focus topic Biophotonics
„Mit Licht gegen Alzheimer, Sepsis und Krebs“
(“Using light against Alzheimer’s, sepsis and cancer“)
Hall B1, Booth# 340
Contact:
Dr. Matthias Scholz
T: + 49-30-6392-6190
LTB Lasertechnik Berlin GmbH
Rudower Chaussee 29
12489 Berlin/Germany