Researchers have an infrared eye for cancer

The prototype system works by looking for the tiny temperature difference between healthy tissue and a growing tumour.

The researchers have begun a pilot study of 50 patients at Johns Hopkins to help determine how specific and sensitive the device is in evaluating melanomas and pre-cancerous lesions. Further patient testing and refinement of the technology are needed, but if the system works as envisioned, it could help physicians address a serious health problem.

To avert deaths from such cancers, doctors need to identify a mole that may be melanoma at an early, treatable stage. To do this, doctors now look for subjective clues such as the size, shape and colouring of a mole, but the process is not perfect.

’The problem with diagnosing melanoma in the year 2010 is that we don’t have any objective way to diagnose this disease,’ said Rhoda Alani, adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. ’Our goal is to give an objective measurement as to whether a lesion may be malignant. It could take much of the guesswork out of screening patients for skin cancer.’