Spectroscopic Home-Detection of Melanoma

描述（由申请人提供）： 本研究旨在通过开发一种低成本、非侵入性的光学活检设备来降低与黑色素瘤相关的死亡率，该设备可以在家庭环境中由没有特定医学专业知识的个人有效使用。 皮肤癌是最常见的癌症，黑色素瘤是最致命的形式。据估计，在2003年期间，美国将有91，900例恶性黑色素瘤新发病例和7600例黑色素瘤死亡。黑色素瘤如果在肿瘤较薄且尚未深入皮肤时进行诊断和治疗，则可以治愈。然而，如果黑色素瘤在早期阶段没有被切除，癌细胞可能会从皮肤表面向下生长，侵入健康组织。不幸的是，许多黑色素瘤被发现得太晚，并导致显著的发病率和死亡率。需要开发一种低成本的基于消费者的黑素瘤检测装置。 目标是通过商业市场网络，为尽可能多的人群建立早期和有效的黑色素瘤检测。该研究是基于这样的理解，即黑色素瘤死亡率与检测到的阶段和患者肿瘤在检测和切除之前的年龄成正比。该项目的动机是最近的研究表明，恶性黑色素瘤具有独特的弹性散射特性，在可见光谱区相比，发育不良和良性痣，或与正常皮肤。 该方法是在临床上识别离散的光谱区域，当用光纤，照明和检测技术的最新创新所产生的简单光学设备进行采样时，可以重现具有与更昂贵和繁琐的全光谱技术相当的特异性和灵敏度的癌性皮肤肿瘤识别。通过临床与组织病理学诊断的相关性完成商业产品的临床培训。该计划是通过在电光，临床皮肤病学，生物医学光学和医疗设备商业化的合作专业知识来完成的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research aims to reduce the mortality rate associated with melanoma by development of a low-cost, non-invasive, optical biopsy device that can be used effectively by individuals with no particular medical expertise, in a home setting. Skin Cancer is the most common cancer and melanoma its most fatal form. It is estimated that there will be 91,900 new cases of malignant melanoma and 7600 melanoma deaths in the United States during 2003. Melanoma can be cured if it is diagnosed and treated when the tumor is thin and has not deeply invaded the skin. However, if a melanoma is not removed at its early stages, cancer cells may grow downward from the skin surface, invading healthy tissue. Unfortunately, many melanomas are detected too late and result in significant morbidity and mortality. A need exists to develop a low cost consumer based melanoma detection device. The goal is to establish early and effective detection of melanoma for the largest population possible, through the network of the commercial marketplace. The study is premised on the understanding that the melanoma mortality rate is directly proportional to stage that is detected and the age of patient tumors prior to detection and excision. The project is motivated by recent research indicating that malignant melanoma has unique elastic scattering characteristics in the visible spectral region when compared with dysplastic and benign naevi, or with normal skin. The methodology is to clinically identify discrete spectral regions that, when sampled with a simple optical device born of recent innovation in fiber optic, illumination, and detection technology, can reproduce cancerous skin tumor identification with specificity and sensitivity comparable to more costly and cumbersome full-spectrum techniques. Clinical training of the commercial product is accomplished by clinical correlation with histopathological diagnosis. The initiative is accomplished through collaborative expertise in electro-optics, clinical dermatology, bio-medical optics, and medical device commercialization.