Is this new EU-funded skin cancer screening device a game changer?

euronews (in English)

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

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