Diagnosing Melanomas Using ABCD: Proper Timing and Speedy Treatment Crucial – Report

Writer: Robert Valenzuela on Jul 30 2010.

Diagnosing Melanomas Using ABCD: Proper Timing and Speedy Treatment Crucial - Report

When diagnosing melanomas, proper timing and speedy treatment are crucial, says a new report from the originators of the ABCD system.

Darrell S. Rigel, M.D. and colleagues from the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at New York University School of Medicine suggest that even with modern systems of melanoma detection, proper timing and speedy treatment continue to be defining event.

This was after 25 years have passed since they’ve published the mnemonic “ABCD” to enhance the early diagnosis of melanoma.

The team who coined the moniker says early discovery remains the foremost component in bringing down malignant melanoma related mortalities.

Their report appears online on CA First Look, and will appear in the September/October issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Since melanoma can be seen externally, the ability to diagnose it upon onset is very promising even without using first the examination of the tumor cells under the microscope which is still considered the highest priority.

The authors of the recent report, based on their knowledge in patient analysis at the New York University School of Medicine Melanoma Cooperative Group, proposed in 1985 that attention to asymmetry (A), border irregularity (B), color variegation (C), and diameter more than 6 mm (D) of pigmented skin lesions could help achieve early diagnosis of malignant melanoma.

There are marked advances in diagnosing melanoma in the past 25 years.

And through dermoscopy, in the 1990ís, the ability to distinguish subsurface characteristics aided in the recognition between non-cancerous and cancerous sores.

New computer enhanced technologies, in the last decade, witnessed a more sensible and direct way in diagnostic capabilities and may help bring about the best way in choosing cell selections for a more effective biopsy and pathology analysis.

“From the development of the ABCDs through current attempts that use complex computer algorithms and genetic markers, a clinician’s ability to detect melanoma in its earliest form has been augmented,” write the authors.

“However, a ‘good clinical eye’ is still fundamental to selecting the lesions for evaluation among the sea of those that are prevalent.”

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