This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Recent developments in early melanoma detection presented at AAD
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
DENVER — Allan C. Halpern, MD, MSc, chief of dermatology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, presented recent developments in the early detection of melanoma at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting.
“Our biggest opportunity to prevent people from dying from melanoma is to catch them early when they can be cured by simple excision,” Halpern told Healio.com.
Allan C. Halpern
Halpern pointed to recent success in Germany, where residents above the age of 35 years are being screened for melanoma, with initial study results showing that screening possibly can reduce the melanoma mortality rate by as much as 48%.
“Here in the US, we have a real supply and demand problem as relates to the detection of melanoma,” Halpern said.
Some of the solutions might include educating both primary care physicians and extenders about melanoma detection and employing technologies including computer vision, total body photography and short-term dermoscopic monitoring for individual lesions, he said. - By Bruce Thiel
For more information:
Halpern AC. #S049. Melanoma Detection in the Informatics Era. Presented at the 2014American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting; March 21-25, Denver.