Early Detection of Skin Cancer by Microtopography

The objective of this work was to determine the ruggedness of the skin with benign and malignant lesions. Latex impressions were taken from lesions of skin’s patients and were analyzed by the MICROTOP 03.MFC inspection system. For the melanoma lesion it was observed that the average rugosity of this tumor was increased 67% compared with the rugosity of healthy skin. These measures allow us to distinguish significantly from other tumors, as it is the case of the basal cell carcinoma (49%), and benign lesions as the epidermoid cyst (37%) and the seborrhea keratosis (4%). It was observed a direct relation between the rugosity and the malignancy of the lesions. These results indicate that the rugosity is a characteristic that could be useful in the diagnosis of skin cancer.