TASS: Testing the Device for Prompt Melanoma-based Diagnosis Will Begin in Samara

In 2025, Samara scientists are going to start testing the device for prompt melanoma-based diagnosis. This was reported to TASS at Samara State Medical University (SamSMU).

Scientists from Samara University, SamSMU and Samara Regional Oncological Dispensary (SOCOD) have been developing for about 10 years the device that allows to detect melanoma at its early stage by using optical examination of skin neoplasms. The device makes it possible to examine the skin from a distance, in a non-contact way, without standard biopsy. The first extensive tests of the device were completed in SOCOD in 2017, after which the device was further revised. The work intensified after the project inclusion in the Federal Program “Priority 2030”; the device is being prepared for mass production.

“The development over, a valid sample of the device (its prototype) will be obtained, with subsequently undergoing it to the standard procedure of pre-series ex vivo tests, its technical specifications and capabilities studied. Only after that it will be possible to start clinical trials and launch the development into mass production”, told us Aleksandr Kolsanov, Rector of SamSMU of Russia’s Ministry of Health, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation. He explained that the method is intended for diagnosis of skin neoplasms in medical institutions of any type by doctors of any specializations.

Aleksandr Moryatov, the project curator, Associate Professor at SamSMU’s Department of Oncology, working as oncologist at SOCOD, specified that in 2024, the scientists will complete the work on the prototype device, and in 2025, its biological tests will begin. “In fact, we are currently developing the pre-production device. The work must result in getting by us a device to be potentially prepared for mass production and further widely used”, said the scientist.

Samara University is responsible for the technical aspect of the project, in particular, for improving the software. The data obtained by using the device is processed by artificial intelligence that gives the results in a few minutes. The more research we can do, the more “trained” the data processing program will get. For the purpose of manufacturing the device, cooperation with the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been built, as well.

About the optical biopsy method

The development has been based on the hypothesis that light interacts differently with various objects on the skin. The scientists started from the fact that any biological tissue, including pigmented spots, has its own optical properties that can be analyzed using high-precision network technologies. Following outcomes of the tests, experts concluded that accuracy of the result obtained by optical method approaches 97%, while accuracy of the standard clinical examination for melanoma is 50–60%.

The device irradiates the skin surface with a laser and photographs it in many spectral ranges: healthy and diseased cells differ in their spectrum. The entire examination is painless for the patient and takes from one to three minutes. Then the artificial intelligence processes the reflected signal and outputs the real-time result. Doctors conclude what risk zone the object under examination refers to: a safe mole; a malignant tumor that does not require treatment; or assumption of melanoma, and the patient needs to immediately consult a doctor.

Source: nauka.tass.ru