Melanoma testing: Progress in practice

Source: MDLinx, January 2020

Until recently, a physician’s ability to interpret and predict the future of melanocytic lesions was limited to clinical observation and microscopic observation. Demand for an accurate, noninvasive diagnostic modality inspired a paradigm shift that led to the development of various prebiopsy tools.

Dermoscopy, confocal microscopy and computer-aided image analysis emerged into practice; however, research shows these tools can be subject to limitations of pattern and image recognition.

More recently, gene expression testing is being used for the identification of high-risk melanocytic lesions. Noninvasive gene expression testing (2-GEP) is a way of identifying high-risk pigmented lesions before unequivocal clinical characteristics, the current gold standard, have developed.