Scan For Skin Cancer

The machine, called MelaFind, is intended to examine lesions that doctors think have one or more characteristics of melanoma. Today, most lesions that look cancerous are biopsied. Many of those lesions turn out to be non-malignant. With a MelaFind, a dermatologist can scan the lesions, relying on the machine to identify early melanoma. If the machine does detect cancer, the doctor can proceed with a biopsy, but if the machine finds the lesion to be noncancerous, the patient does not have to go through unnecessary surgery to the skin. (Detect Melanoma Without Cutting Skin)"

Once again technology amazes me. Just think, they could make it mandatory for everyone once a year at a check up to get scanned for skin cancer. Now, cost could be a big factor here but if they could somehow have this covered under normal health insurance, this could save so many people. Melanoma, if it is caught in its early stages, is almost 100 percent curable. And especially with tanning becoming so popular among female teens, cases of melanoma are starting to pop up more and more. If this machine becomes part of every hospital, melanoma could almost be wiped out. This machine, if it does what its statistics say, could help doctors catch melanoma in its early stages and cut the rate of people actually getting full-blown skin cancer in half, at least. It seems like there is a new machine or medical advance almost everyday; I can only imagine what will come out next.