Computerised monitoring of moles.

Computerised (digital) monitoring of "suspicious" moles that have no clinical features of melanoma has been investigated by us over the last 5 yrs. The technology uses a colour calibrated imaging instrument (SolarScan® from Polartechnics Ltd) that allows magnified images of moles to be stored and compared over time. The results of our previous studies showed that when monitoring lesions over a 3 month time period, 83% of benign (ie. OK) moles do not change. Of the changed lesions 11% were early melanoma.

Importantly, these melanomas could not be recognised by any other feature other than observing change. Therefore this technique has been shown to allow early detection of clinically "featureless" melanoma; ie. melanoma that cannot be detected by routine clinical examination, while at the same time reducing needless excisions (Menzies SW et. al. Archives of Dermatology 2001;137:1583-89).