Scanner technology could improve skin-cancer treatment

The company’s VivoSight scanner is claimed to provide dermatologists with a new way of seeing abnormalities hidden below the skin surface.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is said to be reaching epidemic proportions, with an estimated 3.5 million new cases a year in the US, accounting for 4.5 per cent of all Medicare cancer costs, and costing the NHS around £100m annually also.

Michelson’s VivoSight scanner will enable clinicians to ‘see’ under the skin surface in real time to help them decide whether to treat a lesion, what treatment to use, and to show them how far a tumour has spread, so that surgery is required only once and conserves healthy tissue.

The scanner could also increase the use of non-invasive, non-scarring treatments by giving clinicians a better way to monitor the progress of the treated lesion.

The VivoSight scanner has won CE & Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory clearance for clinical use in Europe and the US, and is now being evaluated by leading skin-cancer specialists.