SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, May 14, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. Diagnosing melanoma can be challenging and visual assessment is the current first-line diagnostic technique used by dermatologists. If findings are concerning, skin biopsy is performed. However, most skin biopsies performed for lesions suspicious of melanoma turn out to be benign. A noninvasive melanoma test that uses adhesive patches to collect cells from the top layer of skin on concerning growths has been shown to help with biopsy decisions.

In this new study in SKIN: The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine^®, Mark D Kaufmann, MD, and his coauthors present a study where this noninvasive melanoma test was used on 19,653 suspicious lesions for melanoma across 63 U.S. dermatology and primary care practices. The authors report that for melanoma, melanomas were detected over 95% of the time and if the test was negative, 99.7% of the time the lesions were benign. The results suggest the noninvasive test can help differentiate melanoma from other benign lesions prior to biopsy.

The noninvasive melanoma test uses the small skin sample from the adhesive patch to test for two genes that are commonly found in melanomas but less often in benign lesions. If either gene or both are identified, it suggests the lesion should undergo biopsy for melanoma. This study investigated the test’s performance a large patient group. They found that more than 90% of suspicious lesions tested negative, indicating that the test can be used to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies. This is important so patients can avoid biopsies while maintaining safe outcomes.

SKIN: The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine^® is a peer-reviewed online medical journal that is the official journal of The National Society for Cutaneous Medicine. The mission of SKIN is to provide an enhanced and accelerated route to disseminate new dermatologic knowledge for all aspects of cutaneous disease.

For more details, please visit www.jofskin.org or contact jofskin@gmail.com.

Loren E Clarke, MD
DermTech
lclarke@dermtech.com