Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and while survival rates have improved in recent years, late diagnosis and delays in treatment remain key challenges.
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00:00 Cancer cases are rising in Europe. Skin melanoma is the sixth most common type according to EU data.
00:10 Now here in the Latvian capital Riga, an EU funded project aims to improve access to early diagnosis of it and save lives.
00:20 This new portable detection device means GPs could conduct non-invasive routine screening in their practices.
00:29 The survival rate for last stage of melanoma is 5 and less percent while for the first stage it's almost 100.
00:37 Researchers here at the University of Latvia developed the technology which uses different colored lights to determine whether a skin lesion is malignant or benign.
00:51 Red light or yellow light or blue light, they reflect differently because in the skin there is blood and melanin, different chromophores and they give us different information.
01:06 Lesions like this mole are scanned with the lights harmlessly penetrating tissue up to 5 millimeters beneath the surface.
01:14 Images are sent wirelessly for analysis by an AI algorithm and results are ready in a secure cloud system in seconds.
01:23 Research volunteer Volz is fine but this image shows what a melanoma would look like.
01:29 We get these increased values which are red and yellow which shows that melanoma is growing in this lesion.
01:38 For Volz who's been advised to have annual dermatologist checks, GP testing would be welcome.
01:45 In case I'm worried about some particular mole myself then I can quickly find out if I shouldn't worry about it or if I should go and seek consultation with dermatologist.
01:56 Here at Riga Technical University researchers develop the hardware and processing techniques.
02:04 The device has now been tested on over 4,000 lesions to a high level of accuracy.
02:10 Dermatologist for the risky patient they pick the part of your skin basically cut it out and study under the microscope and they give the final result.
02:19 And we compare it with our device result and that's how we see that 95% of all melanomas are being detected by our device.
02:27 This project's total budget is just over 645,000 euros.
02:33 85% came from the European Regional Development Fund.
02:37 The Latvian government provided 7.5% with the remainder covered by the two universities.
02:44 Looking forward it's hoped the technology developed here in Riga will detect other cancers and rare diseases too, helping to save more lives.
02:54 Music