In vivo skin fluorescence imaging in young Caucasian adults with early malignant melanomas

Abstract

BackgroundHuman cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is an aggressive cancer showing a dramatic worldwide increase in incidence over the past few decades. The most prominent relative epidemiological increase has been disclosed in young women. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of chronic sun exposures in order to rate the extend of melanocytic stimulations in the vicinity of CMM.MethodsThe study was designed to evaluate the melanin distribution and density using ultraviolet light illumination. The present study was performed on surgical excision specimens of thin CMM lesion removed from the upper limbs of 55 Caucasian adults (37 women and 18 men). Two control groups comprised 23 men and 21 women of similar ages who had medium-size congenital melanocytic nevi, also present on the upper limbs. The peritumoral skin was scrutinized using a Visioscan® VC98 device, revealing the faint mosaic melanoderma (FMM) pattern that grossly indicates early signs of chronic photodamage in epidermal melanin units.ResultsThe median extent of relative FMM was significantly higher in the CMM male group. By contrast, the CMM female group showed a reverse bimodal distribution in FMM size. Only 12/37 (32.5%) of the CMM female group had an increased FMM size, whereas 25/37 (67.5%) of females with CMM had a global FMM extent in the normal range, relative to the controls.ConclusionThin CMM supervening in young women appear unrelated to repeat photoexposure. Other mechanisms are possibly involved.

A review of melanin sensor devices

“…For example, photoacoustic microscopy at 532 nm has demonstrated potential for the in vivo diagnosis of melanoma (Zhang et al 2010). Lastly, the growing accuracy and versatility of melanin meters will allow their use on patient demographics with skin types that lie outside that typical of Caucasian (Kaidbey et al 1979;Piérard et al 2014;Thompson et al 2018) and Asian (J. W. Shin et al 2014;Treesirichod et al 2014) populations (Wright et al 2016).…”

Sunscreen remanence on the skin: a noninvasive real time in vivo spectral analysis assessing the quenching of specular ultraviolet A light reflectance

“…The device contains a set of 16 LED which emit UVA1 in the WL range 375–385 nm. For controls in a UVR spectrum analysis procedure, the Visioscan ® VC98 (C+K electronic) was used, emitting UVA in the range 380–395 nm WL, with a peak at 387 nm . Each of the devices was closely applied to the skin in order to collect images on a computer screen.…”

Differentiation of basal cell carcinoma and healthy skin using multispectral modulation autofluorescence imaging: A pilot study

“…The autofluorescence (AF) spectroscopy and imaging relying on endogenous fluorophores represent non-invasive and fast approach for skin cancers diagnosis. However, due to high pigmentation of pigmentary skin nevi [47] and early malignant melanomas of the skin [48,49], this method has a significant limitation because of low light penetration depth [4]. The non-melanoma cancers of the skin [50], such as basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), are usually less pigmented and, as a consequence, appear to be promising goal for the AF diagnosis [4,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58].…”