Optical transfer diagnosis differentiating benign and malignant pigmented lesions in a simulated primary care practice

Melanoma detection can be challenging for primary care providers (PCPs). Pilot studies have shown promise for Optical Transfer Diagnosis (OTD) as a potential tool to help PCPs make decisions about pigmented skin lesions. This new study has used OTD to evaluate over 700 pigmented skin lesions in a simulated primary care practice to assess the potential of OTD in the primary care setting. OTD was used to capture and analyse images of the skin lesions. The OTD analysis was then compared to histopathological findings. Overall, OTD had a sensitivity of 99% for malignant lesions and a specificity of 93% for benign lesions that were histologically sampled but only 73% for all benign lesions in the study. Consequently, it is expected that in a primary care practice where most lesions are benign, OTD would be expected to have a specificity between 73-93%. Though only a premliminary study, the results suggest that OTD is a promising technology for skin cancer screening. It has the potential to help PCPs monitor lesions and reduce the number of dermatology referrals in relation to skin lesion biopsy and excision.   Read the full article here.