A NON INVASIVE DERMATOLOGICAL LESION CLASSIFIER

皮肤癌是增长最快的癌症。约34，100 1995年，美国人患上了皮肤黑色素瘤;在幸存者中，许多人必须 与毁容和恐惧的持续创伤作斗争。皮肤活检是 现在是最常进行的医疗程序。这是不言自明的， 皮肤科医生认为，早期发现和诊断至关重要。长足进步 在早期发现可疑的皮肤病变;然而， 活检的正确病变有严重的后果。困境加剧 由于50- 80%的活检被证明是不必要的， 浪费医疗费用、患者创伤和患者负面行为 反馈第一阶段的工作在皮肤光谱学和人工神经 net技术提出了一种自动化的临床诊断辅助工具， 皮肤损伤的定量而非定性诊断评估， 可能该项目建议开发和测试这种产品。 在第二阶段，大量的黑色素瘤和痣的光谱样本 将用于完成人工神经网络分类器的开发。 这样的分类器系统将导致一个商业产品的歧视 “正常”、癌前和癌性皮肤病变。 拟定商业应用： 拟议的项目将带来一种非侵入性、办公室内、实时测试，以提供 在活检之前自动、可重复地诊断皮肤病变的性质。 皮肤活检现在是最经常进行的报销医疗保险程序， 而在事后发现多达50-80%是不必要的。 成本低 这个测试，以及系统的快速摊销，再加上巨大的医疗保健， 成本节约可能与一个重要的和广泛认可的健康 这表明该产品具有巨大的商业潜力。

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.