New device may deliver quick skin cancer scans

A new scanner could use the same technology as airport security checks to identify cancerous skin cells with a success rate of 97%.

If you went to a doctor to get a skin cancer check today, and they found something suspicious, a tissue sample would most likely be collected for analysis using a scalpel. It’s an essential process: two-thirds of Australians will be diagnosed with a skin cancer by the age of 70, and Australians are getting skin cancer checks more than ever. But that also means that doctors collect ever more skin samples from their patients, and according to a previous report, doctors collect skin samples from 15 healthy people for each confrmed case of cancer they find.

Both doctors and patients would be interested in reducing the number of tissue samples. They hurt, cause scars, and are time-consuming both for doctors to take and for test labs to analyse. But this minor surgery could be a thing of the past if scientists are successful in their efforts to develop a method that can spot skin cancer without surgery.

Scientists from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey have spent years testing how to spot cell changes that could later develop into cancer. They have found that scans using microwaves and millimetre waves (with a slightly higher frequency) can produce an image of the skin cells by bombarding the cells and being reflected. If the cells are changing, their levels of water, proteins, sugar, and acid change – which the device can measure when the wave is reflected back.

The scientists say that this technology would improve the accuracy of skin checks and might operate via a simple inexpensive handheld device that could become an integral part of any visit to the doctor.