Functional Infrared Imaging for Skin-Cancer Screening

Abstract

Annually 133.000 people world-wide get sick on malign melanoma, tendency increasing. The purpose of this study is the early diagnosis of malignant skin cancer. At the moment the dermatologists are screening for anomalies at the relevant lesion by examining the skin area with a microscope. To determine changes, another scan has to be taken in a follow-up session after a time period of about 15-20 weeks. Today's visual diagnostic decision is based on the pragmatic ABCD approach (Asymmetry, Border, Colour, and Diameter). However, there is no adequate and sound non-invasive way to find out, if a skin spot is either malign or benign. If the visual approach corroborates a suspicion of skin cancer, histology is needed to make explicit diagnosis. To avoid unnecessary surgeries (on false positive alarm) and to initiate necessary surgeries in early stages a new diagnostic screening approach is presented here. Based on the fact that malign melanoma have higher metabolism as well as increased blood flow, it has been conjectured that malign melanoma have slightly higher temperature compared to the healthy skin that can be measured by high resolution functional infrared imaging.

Quantification of the thermal signature of a melanoma lesion

“…For instance, Di Carlo [22] designed a thermostimulation method that solves the problem of false-negative results, and this method allows IR imaging to differentiate malignant melanoma from other types of pigmented lesions. Buzug et al [23] used cold gel packs to produce a substantial temperature difference on the skin surface for detection of melanoma and basal cell carcinoma. Also Santa Cruz et al [25] showed that dynamic infrared imaging is capable of following-up nodular melanoma patients treated with Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT).…”

Infrared thermography of cutaneous melanoma metastases

“…[1] Both hypervascularity and these metabolic aberrations may explain increased temperature in these lesions. [2,3] However, thermal findings are difficult to quantify and to document objectively by clinical exam. Imaging of infrared (IR) radiation, or thermography, can permit objective temperature measures.…”

“…Thermography has been explored for imaging metastatic and primary melanomas since the 1970s, with published work suggesting that it may be helpful in diagnosis of primary and metastatic cutaneous melanomas. [3][4–8] IR thermography studies of primary melanomas suggest that lesion hyperthermia correlates with thickness of primary melanomas and that nodular primary melanomas are consistently hyperthermic. [9,10][11] Additionally, hyperthermic lesions have been associated with increased lymph node positivity.…”

3D optical coherence tomography for clinical diagnosis of nonmelanoma skin cancers

“…CM is one of the most prominent noninvasive in vivo biomedical imaging modalities that can perform optical sectioning of human skin in the horizontal plane with a resolution comparable to that of histology. Its depth sectioning capability and reflection or fluorescence sensitivity can be utilized for cancer diagnosis in thin (~200-300 µm) samples [14][15][16]. CM systems offering cellular resolution have been successfully employed in several clinical investigations to identify nonmelanoma skin lesions and to monitor treatment responses in vivo [17].…”