BY SHAWN KENG
IT started as a final year engineering project. A team of four Canadian graduate students at McMaster University in Canada developed a simple yet practical skin cancer sensor. This prototype device named “sKan” differentiates a harmless skin spot and a cancerous pigment on your skin. This prototype has huge potential to help thousands of people at risk of developing skin cancer globally, by detecting and preventing skin cancer possibly at the earliest stage.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. According to Melanoma Research Foundation in Washington, melanoma can happen to anyone, [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]regardless of gender, age and race. Melanoma is not restricted to skin surface, but also develop anywhere on the body. This includes nails, scalp, mouth and even the eyes. Based on Third National Cancer Registry Report 2003-2005, skin cancer contributed 2.6 percent of all cancer cases, ranked tenth most common cancer in Malaysia. Recent data from Dermatology Clinic, Hospital Kuala Lumpur 2006-2014 showed basal cell carcinoma (34.9 percent) is most common type of skin cancer in Malaysia, followed by cutaneous lymphoma (25.7 percent) and squamous cell carcinoma (20.6 percent).
Currently, melanoma can be detected early based on visual observation of ABCDE signs: Asymmetry skin spot, unsmooth Border, uneven skin Colour shades, larger-than-usual Diameter and Elevation nature of raised skin spot. However, this early diagnostic method heavily depends on doctor’s skills which may be varied and unreliable at times.
How sKan works more accurately? Complementing qualitative visual observation, sKan captures heat patterns of the skin surface of interest, picking up subtle skin temperature changes. sKan will first cool down a suspect area of skin in a sudden manner, then cancerous cells will regain heat faster than surrounding normal cells. This highly sensitive skin heat sensor accurately captures quantitative temperature change readings and digitised these data as a heat map. This is made possible using 16 temperature-sensitive parts called thermistors, all arranged in a 4 by 4 square grid. This prototype helps doctor differentiate whether a skin spot or other suspect tissue is indeed a melanoma.
This prototype can be further enhanced to helps doctor in confirming melanoma signs without resorting to painful biopsy or cutting out a piece of patient’s skin. To achieve this, the current prototype needs to increase its heat sensitivity to detect temperature difference from 0.6°C to 0.3°C.
According to McMaster University press release, Prateek Mathur who is one of the inventors shared his inspiration for designing sKan. “We came across the issue of skin cancer and how technology hasn’t had the same impact on its diagnosis as it has on other fields in medicine,” Mathur said.
“We found research that used the thermal properties of cancerous skin tissue as a means of detecting melanoma. However, this was done using expensive lab equipment. We set out to apply the research and invent a way of performing the same assessment using a more cost-effective solution.”
This prototype will revolutionise skin cancer diagnostic technology in terms of cost and accessibility. The sKan team is expecting this new invention will be 80 percent cheaper than existing non-invasive option of thermal imaging.
This invention is also light-weight and hand-held, making it possible to be carried around inside a pocket. Ultimately, the sKan team aims to market their invention for less than £765 (RM4200). sKan received huge praise and recognition for its simple ingenuity. In 2017, the sKan team won the James Dyson prize for engineering and cash in a £30,000 (RM165,000) prize for next stage of product development.
Given this prize money, the team will incorporate a company named Prsm in Ontario and begin pre-clinical trials next year with their new prototype. The current prototype is to date, only tested in lab conditions.
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