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Total Body Photography:
Total Body Photography creates a complete record of your skin and is widely used for the management of at-risk patients particularly those with a large number of moles. Total Body Photography helps clinicians identify new moles (up to 50% of melanomas arise out of previously unmarked skin i.e. not out of existing moles) and pick up subtle changes in existing moles. Several authors point out that Total Body Photography is a key factor in detecting melanoma in their high risk patients. Every new patient that has a MoleSafe consultation receives Total Body Photography to create a record, or baseline, of their skin to help our clinicians identify new/changing moles that may be indicative of melanoma. Digital Dermoscopy:   Naked eye view of a Mole Dermoscopic View of the same Mole Dermoscopy (Epiluminescence Microscopy) combines high magnification and high light intensity to illuminate sub-surface features and vascular networks of pigmented lesions – diagnostic feature that cannot be observed with the naked eye. The use of dermoscopy greatly enhances the diagnostic accuracy for melanoma i.e. more melanomas are identified using dermoscopy than relying solely on a naked eye inspection. Dermoscopy also helps reduce the need for unnecessary excision of benign lesions. We recommend when in doubt, check it out. The diagnosis of melanoma via dermoscopy does require a high level of skill as some vascular features of melanoma are very subtle even to a trained set of eyes. This is why MoleSafe draws on the experience of an international panel of dermatologists to assess every mole of each MoleSafe patient. Dermatologists have undergone a minimum of 13 years training, which includes general medical training followed by specialist training. Digital Serial Monitoring:  Dermoscopic images of a mole changing over several months: Diagnosis - In-situ (very early) melanoma If there is one universal truth about melanoma, then that is that they change. All melanomas change shape size or color so having the ability to accurately track moles over a period of time (3 months – 1 year, 2 years, 3 years etc) enables our dermatologists/dermoscopists to pick up changes that may indicate early stage melanoma. This process is especially useful for identifying clinically featureless melanomas (i.e. melanomas that look like a normal mole) that would otherwise be missed by a routine naked eye inspection. MoleSafe uses serial digital monitoring to track all moles. This not only helps identify moles that are changing but also those that are stable/have not changed. This leads to earlier detection of melanoma, while reducing the unnecessary removal of benign lesions. For example, a recent study highlighted that US GPs excised, on average, 75 lesions to find one melanoma. Molesafe audit figures highlight that we remove only six lesions to find one melanoma. |
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