May 21, 2008 9:06 am US/Eastern
Molesafe: Early Melanoma Detection
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
While melanoma is deadly, the good news is that it's a cancer that's easily found. The trick is to tell the difference between a harmless freckle or mole and a growing cancer. New technology from New Zealand is helping to do just that.
Alan Shier was never a sun worshipper, but he did get a couple of blistering sunburns during college spring breaks. That may have led to the melanoma on his back and the huge scar when it was excised.
"I have moles… My back seems to have a lot. In fact, I found one myself on my foot, and being a podiatrist, I biopsied myself," Shier said.
It was a tiny mole on Cindy Gallant's side that also turned out to be melanoma. Fortunately, it was found at a very early stage but Cindy has many more moles on her body.
"I could biopsy all of them but I wouldn't want to do that. I wouldn't want to cut up my whole body, no thank you. I think it would be a lot easier to just go for a screening," Gallant said.
And that's just what Cindy did, using technology imported from New Zealand called Molesafe that combines digital photography and microscopy with computerized mapping of every square inch of the body. Experts believe this is the best way to find an early melanoma.
"We're looking for irregular moles and we're looking for lesions that look different from neighboring moles. We can find many melanomas. However, we are also looking for those lesions that are changing and we think that's a very sensitive way of detecting melanoma," Dr. Ashfaq Marghoob from Memorial Sloan-Kettering said.
What makes it even more valuable is that the Molesafe technology also allows for high resolution images to be electronically sent to be read by melanoma experts.
"The management allows for us to have a world class dermatologist reading these images, doctors who see 1,500-3000 melanomas a year, as opposed to the average American dermatologist who may only see 5 melanomas in a year," Dr. Richard Bezozo said.
Then there's the special micro-photography of the Molesafe system, which brings out the deeper layers of a mole through special lighting and magnification that identify an innocent looking mole as a melanoma, and helps avoid unnecessary biopsies.
"We believe that Molesafe will become to dermatologists what mammograms is to gynecologists: an essential tool to help the dermatologist better manage the at-risk patient for melanoma," Bezozo said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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