A NON INVASIVE DERMATOLOGICAL LESION CLASSIFIER

皮肤癌是增长最快的癌症。大约34,100 美国人在1995年患上了皮肤黑色素瘤；幸存者中，许多人肯定 与毁容和恐惧带来的持续创伤作斗争。皮肤活检是 现在进行最频繁的医疗程序。这是不言而喻的 皮肤科医生认为，早期发现和诊断至关重要。大踏步前进 在早期发现可疑皮肤损害方面取得了进展；但未能 对右侧病变进行活检会产生严重后果。进退两难的局面进一步加剧。 由于50%-80%的活组织检查被证明是不必要的，导致了巨大的 医疗费用的浪费、患者的创伤和消极的患者行为 反馈。皮肤科光谱学和人工神经的第一阶段工作 NET技术表明，一个自动化的临床诊断辅助工具可以产生 对皮肤损伤的定量而不是定性诊断评估是 有可能。该项目建议开发和测试这样的产品。 在第二阶段，大量黑色素瘤和色素痣的光谱样本 将其用于完成人工神经网络分类器的开发。 这样的分类器系统会导致商业产品的甄别 “正常”、癌前病变和癌变皮肤病变。 建议的商业应用： 拟议的项目将导致非侵入性的、在办公室内的实时测试，以提供 在活检前对皮损性质的自动、可重复诊断概率。 皮肤活检现在是最常见的报销医疗保险程序， 而多达50%-80%的人在事后被发现没有必要。低成本的 这一测试，以及系统的快速摊销，再加上巨大的医疗保健 与广泛认可的重大健康状况相结合可能实现的成本节约 问题，表明这种产品可能有很大的商业潜力。

Skin cancer is the fastest growing cancer. Approximately 34,100 Americans developed cutaneous melanoma in 1995; of the survivors, many must contend with the ongoing trauma of disfigurement and fear. Skin biopsies are now the most frequently performed medical procedure. It is axiomatic among dermatologists that early detection and diagnosis are critical. Great strides have been made in early detection of suspect skin lesions; however failure to biopsy the right lesion has severe consequences. The dilemma is exacerbated since 50- 80 percent of biopsies prove unnecessary, contributing to an enormous waste of health care dollars, patient trauma and negative patient behavior feedback. The Phase I work in dermatological spectroscopy and artificial neural net technology suggest that an automated clinical diagnostic aid which produces a quantitative rather than qualitative diagnostic assessment of skin lesions is possible. This project proposes development and testing of such a product. During Phase II a large number of spectroscopic samples of melanoma and nevi will be used to complete development of an artificial neural net classifier. Such a classifier system will lead to a commercial product to discriminate "normal," pre-cancerous and cancerous skin lesions. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The proposed project will lead to a non-invasive, in-office, real-time test to provide an automated, repeatable diagnostic probability of the nature of skin lesions prior to biopsy. Skin biopsies are now the most frequently performed reimbursed Medicare procedure, and as many as 50-80% are found not to be necessary after the fact. The low cost of this test, and rapid amortization of the system, coupled with the enormous health care cost savings possible in conjunction with a significant and widely recognized health problem, suggest that this product could have great commercial potential.