– I think it sounds very practical, and then I think more people would have checked themselves for mole cancer, says Mali Elise Eriksen. The 18-year-old has just been introduced to the research of Stig Uteng, associate professor of statistics at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. Mali Elise Eriksen and Aurora Lovise Pettersen think it is an advantage if it becomes easier to test moles at the dermatologist. Photo: Hanne Larsen / news Uteng, together with researchers from Las Palmas and UiT, investigated whether GPs can find out whether a mole is dangerous or not with the help of an advanced camera. The camera captures light that the eye cannot see – in the infrared part of the spectrum. This is what it looks like when the super camera has been used to photograph a mole. It takes 125 pictures and can reveal cancer. Photo: MDPI With such images, the diagnosis can already be made at the doctor’s office. Today, a suspicious mole is excised and then submitted to experienced skin specialists for assessment. The process can take many weeks. – The dream is to save lives, says Uteng. Stig Uteng is associate professor in Statistics at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. He has participated in the research project. Photo: Hanne Larsen / news Pictures can reveal mole cancer, also called melanoma, is the most serious form of skin cancer and the second most common form of cancer in the 25-50 age group for both sexes. Norway ranks second in the world in terms of mortality, according to the Cancer Association. The reasons for that are so far unknown. The research project that Uteng has been a part of has analyzed 76 pictures of moles. This camera can reveal whether a mole is cancer-positive. Photo: MDPI Uteng says that a normal camera records images in three channels: red, green and blue. In contrast to this, the so-called hyperspectral images are based on 125 channels. – It provides much more information and more opportunities to get a good classification and then diagnosis, explains Uteng. An advantage is that the process does not use any dangerous radiation. The mole is illuminated with a halogen lamp, the researchers write in their article. Stig Uteng presents his results during the research days in Alta. Photo: Hanne Larsen / news Skeptical dermatologist Thomas Schopf at the University Hospital in Tromsø follows this type of research with interest. He is not quite ready to unleash the technology in a regular doctor’s office. – You don’t really know how these programs think. And many will find that scary. You can imagine a pilotless plane: You want to be absolutely sure that it is safe. – So this is the reason why both I and other dermatologists are skeptical, says Schopf. Photo: Privat / If the method is to be used in practice in doctors’ offices, one must be sure that the system is absolutely correctly calibrated, the doctor believes. – If you set it too insensitively, then at worst you can overlook skin cancer, and that is the worst case. Because then people will get a delayed diagnosis, he says. At the same time, he believes the opposite is not good either: that the camera captures too much. – Then you have the problem that they will also give warnings about completely benign things, says Schopf. Dermatologists are skeptical about using the advanced camera, which can detect mole cancer. Photo: MDPI Machines vs. the human Although Schopf believes the technology is still immature, he thinks it is important that researchers are forward-leaning in the pursuit of medical advances. – Yes, absolutely. Suddenly there is a breakthrough. He says that the most important thing is that you shouldn’t leave everything to machines. – You have to involve people. But perhaps the machine can do a rough sorting, so that it would have been easier for the doctors to know which patients they needed to keep an extra eye on, says Schopf. Have removed a suspicious mole Mali Elise Eriksen and her friend Aurora Lovise Pettersen have left behind the summer of all time in northern Norway. The tan is still there and it will probably take a few hours in the solarium to maintain the tan throughout the winter. They know the danger of sunbathing and are careful to check their moles. – It is something we often talk about in the group of friends. Aurora has even removed some suspicious moles, says Mali Elise. Mali Elise Eriksen and Aurora Lovise Pettersen admit that they should have been better at lubricating themselves. Photo: Hanne Larsen / news – Are you good at smearing yourself? – Absolutely not, they say and laugh. The girls are happy that someone is researching how to make an early diagnosis of mole cancer. And a separate machine in the doctor’s office seems to sound right in the middle of nowhere. – It should have been there a long time ago, says Mali Elise. Published 12.10.2024, at 20.32
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Super camera can provide an early cancer diagnosis of mole cancer – news Troms and Finnmark
