Melanomas have a different look than other moles

Washington, Jan 22: A recent study revealed that melanomas might appear differently than other irregular skin moles.

Melanoma is a critical tumour of melanocytes, cells located in the bottom layer of the skin. It is one of the rare types of skin cancer that causes majority of skin cancer related deaths.

According to the report published in JAMA journal Archives of Dermatology, the rates of malignant melanoma is continuously increasing and early identification helps to treat the disease by removing the tumour.

"The challenge for clinicians who diagnose and treat pigmented skin lesions is to distinguish between malignant melanoma and benign simulants," wrote authors.

Dr Alon Scope of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, conducted the study by acquiring the images of the backs of 12 patients.

The patients had at least eight different moles, and five patients had one lesion confirmed as a melanoma.

The experts or participants including eight pigmented lesion experts, 13 general dermatologists, five dermatology nurses and eight non-clinical medical staff, were then asked to evaluate the images and identify lesions that looked different from all other moles.

"The malignant melanomas were apparent as being different to at least 85 percent of participants, whereas the agreement rate on the benign lesions perceived as being different was 76 percent at most," the authors write.

The understanding was 100 percent for the pigmented lesion experts, 89 percent for general dermatologists, 88 percent for nurses and 85 percent for non-clinicians.

ANI