Skin Cancer Facts
General Skin Cancer:
- In the U.S. alone over 5.4 million cases skin cancer are treated in more than 3.3 million people every year.
- There are many types of skin cancer, the most dangerous being Melanoma.
- In the course of their lifetime, 1 out of 5 Americans will develop skin cancer.
Melanoma:
- A person dies of melanoma every 52 minutes.
- Melanoma account for only 1% of skin cancer, but over 50% of the deaths.
- Melanoma is the common form of cancer in individuals between 25-29 years old.
- Exposure to 5 or more sunburns increases the risk of Melanoma.
Current Screening Techniques:
Currently Dermatologists are using devices called dermatoscopes to help screen for skin cancer. These devices are essentially magnifying glasses with polarized light to help the Dermatologists get a better view of the mole. These dermatoscopes can also be attached to a digital camera and can be classified as a digital dermatoscope. When a Dermatologists is checking suspicious moles to they are looking at certain characteristic of the mole. Using a dermatoscope help the dermatologist get a better view of the mole, but only of the surface of the mole.
Biopsies:
When a Dermatologists believes a mole could be cancerous they will need to perform a biopsy. These biopsies can be costly, takes time for results to come back, can be painful for patients, and possibly even scarring. Biopsies are the only true way to determine if a mole is cancerous or not; however, even at specialized practices six out of seven biopsies taken come back negative. Meaning that biopsies are highly inefficient and can current practices can cause unnecessary cost, time, and pain.
We at illume Medical belive our device will help doctors better determine if a biopsy is needed, helping to reduce the number of unneeded biopsies.