Andor claims its iXon EMCCD camera could lead to a new generation of automated cancer screening systems.
Malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, is caused mainly by intense episodes of UV exposure.
Early detection and complete excision of the primary lesions is crucial for reducing melanoma-related deaths but current diagnostic practice is highly subjective.
This leads to unnecessary surgical procedures, which are invasive and expensive.
Takashi Nagaoka and a team of Japanese researchers have developed an automated, non-invasive melanoma screening system that may eliminate the need for a morphological examination and reduce needless surgery.
Their Diffuse Reflectance Hyperspectral Imaging technique determines the position of melanin and haemoglobin at the molecular level.
The hyperspectral imaging data allows the team to differentiate between melanomas and other pigmented skin lesions based on this molecular pigmentary level.
"Since our first priority was to establish whether or not hyperspectral imaging data could be used for melanoma screening, we needed a camera of the highest possible sensitivity.
"The only camera that met our requirements was the Andor iXon EMCCD camera," said Takashi Nagaoka of the Shizuoka Cancer Center Research Institute, Japan.
The iXon successfully captured cutaneous spectra in the visible to near infrared range that contain physiological information about melanin and haemoglobin within the melanoma lesion.
According to the company, the high sensitivity and speed of both the iXon EMCCD and Newton NIR-optimised Deep-Depletion cameras, have enabled the development of the next generation of high-throughput, patient-friendly diagnosis instruments.
By making this type of diagnosis much more accessible and routine in a wide variety of clinical environments, early detection of malignant skin lesions and subsequent early treatment of these lesions could increase diagnosed patients survival rate.
