Genetic test could rule out melanoma diagnosis

Source: Dermatology Times, November 2019

An existing non-invasive gene expression test could effectively rule out a diagnosis of melanoma in a suspicious lesion, eliminating or reducing the need for a surgical biopsy.

In an analysis published in Dermatology Online Journal, researchers examined whether results from the commercially available Pigmented Lesion Assay (PLA) test remained accurate after 12 months. The findings confirmed the test’s critically important high negative predictive value, potentially altering how dermatologists could choose to approach future lesion diagnosis in clinic.