Early Detection and Diagnosis of Melanoma

Early Detection and Diagnosis Program

Group Leader:
A/Professor Scott Menzies

Members: 
Dr Kerry Crotty
Ms Betty Doan-Tran
Dr Pascale Guitera
Dr Ken Ho
Dr Fergal Moloney
Dr Jane Woods

Research Overview

Early detection of melanoma on the skin remains a paramount strategy for reducing mortality from this disease. The program’s focus is to develop technologies and assess their impact for the diagnosis of melanoma of the skin. In particular we are studying the techniques of dermoscopy, sequential digital imaging, total body photography, automated diagnostic instruments and in vivo confocal microscopy. We are located in the Sydney Melanoma Diagnostic Centre, 2nd floor of the SCC.

2006/2007 Highlights
With collaborators from Austria, we have published the largest series in the world of melanomas detected by sequential digital imaging, a technique developed in our unit (Kittler et al. 2006). This work enabled formulation of strict guidelines for determining benign from malignant melanocytic lesions (moles versus melanoma).

With collaborators from Italy, we have also published the worlds largest series of melanomas visualized by in vivo confocal microscopy (Pellacani et al. In Press). This instrument allows optical biopsy of lesions with a quasi-histological resolution while on the patients skin (ie. similar to that seen with standard histopathology examination). The work describes the significant features discriminating benign melanocytic lesions from melanoma.

With collaborators from the National Cancer Control Initiative and the University of Western Australia we have coordinated a NH&MRC funded trial assessing the impact of dermoscopy and sequential digital imaging in general practice. This trial has been completed and data is currently being analysed.

From funding from the Cancer Institute NSW we have established a clinic for patients with an extreme high risk clinic for the development of primary melanoma. This clinic, funded from 2006-2010 inclusive, aims to determine the impact of various diagnostic instruments for detecting melanoma.

Publications 2006/2007
1. Menzies SW. Cutaneous melanoma: Making a clinical diagnosis, present and future. Derm Therapy 2006;19:32-39.

2. Iris Zalaudek, Giuseppe Argenziano,  H. Peter Soyer, Rosamaria Corona,  Francesco Sera, Andreas Blum, Ralph P. Braun, Horacio Cabo, Gerardo Ferrara, Alfred W. Kopf, David Langford,  Scott W. Menzies, Giovanni Pellacani,  Ketty Peris, Stefania Seidenari. 3-point checklist of dermoscopy- an open internet study. Br J Dermatol.  2006:154:431-37

3. Ishri R, Menzies SW, Halliday G. Verapamil induces upregulation of p-glycoprotein expression on human monocyte derived dendritic cells. Immunol. Invest. 2006;35:1-18

4. Menzies SW, Zalaudek I. Why perform dermoscopy? The evidence for its role in the routine management of pigmented skin lesions. Arch Dermatol. 2006;142:1211-1212

5. Kittler H, Guitera P, Teban L, Avramidis M, Fiebinger M, Weger A, Dawid M, Menzies SW. The identification of clinically featureless incipient melanoma using sequential dermoscopy imaging. Arch Dermatol 2006:142:1113-1119

6. Menzies SW. Technologies for the diagnosis of primary melanoma of the skin. Med J Aus. 2006;185:533-34.

7. Bowling J et al. Dermoscopy key points: recommendations from the international dermoscopy society. Dermatology 2007;214:3-5.

8. Blum A, Ingvar C, Avramidis M, von Kannen A, Menzies SW, Olsson H, Rezze GG, Wennberg AM, Westerhoff K. Time to diagnosis of melanoma: same trend in different continents. J Cut Med Surg 2007;11; 137-144