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At a time where non-melanoma skin cancer is reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S, accounting for 4.5% of all Medicare cancer costs; there is a new breakthrough in skin imaging that is predicted to provide significant cost savings.

At a time where non-melanoma skin cancer is reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S, accounting for 4.5% of all Medicare cancer costs; there is a new breakthrough in skin imaging that is predicted to provide significant cost savings. Michelson Diagnostics, a leading innovator in Multi-Beam Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) products, has developed the VivoSight scanner, which has shown great potential in pre-operation delineation of tumor margins in skin cancer patients. The scanner, which received 510 FDA Clearance in January, is able to provide extraordinarily high resolution images of tumors in real-time, to improve excision accuracy and reduce the number of repeat biopsies and Mohs cycles.

According to a recent study published in the Archives of Dermatology 1,  non-melanoma skin cancer is now an epidemic in the U.S., with the estimated total number of such cancers in the U.S. population put at more than 3.5M in 2006 and rising 4% per year. The cost of treatment is significant, accounting for 4.5% of Medicare cancer costs, or over $1.6BN.

The largest single contribution to the treatment cost is the surgical removal of the skin cancers, says Jon Holmes, CEO of Michelson Diagnostics.  Therefore any improvement in the efficiency of operations could produce savings of hundreds of millions of dollars to the US healthcare system.

A recent IRB approved, patient study conducted by Daniel Siegel, M.D., a Clinical Professor of Dermatology, SUNY Downstate, Private Practitioner and Incoming President-Elect of American Academy of Dermatology, reported success in using the company's VivoSight scanner to differentiate between cutaneous tumors and normal epithelium stroma.

Michelson's VivoSight Multi-Beam OCT system appears to be able to differentiate cutaneous tumors from normal epithelium and stroma, says Siegel. While not yet of specific diagnostic value, it appears to be sensitive enough to give useful clinical data in real time, and has great potential in helping pre-operation delineation of tumor margins, which can be both a time and cost saver in the US Health System.

Siegel described three ways in which the instrument could help in future.

During routine surgery, it would reduce the incidence of incomplete resection due to positive margins, where a patient has to have repeat surgery if the whole tumor wasn't removed the first time.  In addition, it would help make sure that cancer wasn't mistakenly thought to be normal and left to develop.

In Mohs surgery, where real-time histology ensures complete tumor removal, OCT could help reduce the average number of stages necessary to achieve clearance.