Whole-body three-dimensional scanners have been used to photograph all the sun-affected skin of nearly 10,000 volunteers for a revolutionary research study which has so far found 500 potentially fatal melanomas, along with many other less dangerous skin cancers. The Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis (ACEMID) has boosted skin-cancer screening research with this cohort study using 15 huge body-scanning machines. Funded by a major infrastructure grant from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, all the machines are located in eastern Australia and collectively are worth about $10m.
About two-thirds of Australians will develop at least one skin cancer before they turn 70, says the University of Queensland research leader and professor of behavioural science Professor Monika Janda. Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world and the ACEMID macro-3D images of patients’ whole-body skin can support the early detection of potentially dangerous lesions.
The images are taken at different intervals depending on the participant’s risk – highest risk in those with least-pigmented skin, Janda says. “The cohort study has a good representation of all the different risk groups, which is important for our research questions, with similar numbers of low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk participants.”
The globally-unique research program, a collaboration between academics from Monash University, the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney, unites expertise in a range of disciplines including dermatology, behavioural science, epidemiology, health economics, statistics, artificial intelligence, data science, genetics, and pathology.
The researchers develop artificial intelligence algorithms from the macro scans of skin to provide alerts when there are danger signals. Saliva samples from participants are also collected to better understand genetic risk factors for skin cancer and to develop sophisticated polygenic scores: numbers that reflect the risk inherent in groups of genes present in a participant’s genome.
Janda says clinicians have documented skin lesions and skin cancers with photos for many years, but these 3D macro images provide close-up viewing of pigmented lesions with far more useful detail.
“Now that we have the full picture, we can understand better what’s happening on people’s skin and understand patterns and changes that need to be looked at,” she adds.
ACEMID researchers are taking on a lot of basic science research, Janda says. “So we really understand better now what is on people’s skin, how is it distributed across the body, and what is happening over time,” she adds. “And we are developing AI algorithms to extract information automatically using the data that we collect.”
As much data as possible is collected by the researchers, and experts predict future AI models will be able to track all the skin lesions in patients and come up with better ways of preventing skin cancers.
The research team now is collaborating with international researchers in the US, Switzerland, Belgium and other parts of Europe, she adds, where the rate of skin cancer is climbing – probably as a result of more frequent holidays in hotter places.
In Australia, most people understand the importance of skin protection – especially for children. “Even if you’re going about your daily life”, Professor Janda says, “it’s a good idea to put sunscreen on in the morning to be protected from incidental exposure.”