%0 Journal Article
%T The role of spectrophotometry in the diagnosis of melanoma
%A Paolo A Ascierto
%A Marco Palla
%A Fabrizio Ayala
%A Ileana De Michele
%A Corrado Carac¨°
%A Antonio Daponte
%A Ester Simeone
%A Stefano Mori
%A Maurizio Del Giudice
%A Rocco A Satriano
%A Antonio Vozza
%A Giuseppe Palmieri
%A Nicola Mozzillo
%J BMC Dermatology
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-5945-10-5
%X During a health campaign for malignant melanoma at National Cancer Institute of Naples, we identified a subset of 54 lesions to be addressed to surgical excision and histological examination. Before surgery, all patients were investigated by clinical and epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) screenings; selected lesions underwent spectrophotometer analysis. For SPT, we used a video spectrophotometer imaging system (Spectroshade£¿ MHT S.p.A., Verona, Italy).Among the 54 patients harbouring cutaneous pigmented lesions, we performed comparison between results from the SPT screening and the histological diagnoses as well as evaluation of both sensitivity and specificity in detecting CM using either SPT or conventional approaches. For all pigmented lesions, agreement between histology and SPT classification was 57.4%. The sensitivity and specificity of SPT in detecting melanoma were 66.6% and 76.2%, respectively.Although SPT is still considered as a valuable diagnostic tool for CM, its low accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity represent the main hamper for the introduction of such a methodology in clinical practice. Dermoscopy remains the best diagnostic tool for the preoperative diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions.The incidence of melanoma in Europe has been steadily increasing, more rapidly than for any other cancer, during recent decades. Incidence of melanoma deeply varies across Europe, with the highest incidence in Scandinavian countries.Lifetime risk of developing melanoma within the entire caucasian population is estimated to be 1:535 individuals. Incidence is higher in individuals with fair skin who have been exposed to high levels of UV-B radiation. Mortality due to metastatic melanoma has increased rapidly in both males and females; such a disease accounts for only 4% of skin cancers, but for 79% of skin-cancer related deaths. In particular, mortality rates are higher in males than in females; mortality has doubled in males over the past 25 years. Again, death rate
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-5945/10/5