Dermatologists can now use Ultrasound-Based “Elastography” to Detect Skin Cancer

When a patient shows up at their dermatologist with a suspicious skin lesion that looks like skin cancer, the traditional method of diagnosis has always been biopsy. But thanks to advancements in high frequency ultrasound machines, doctors can now diagnose skin cancer using a method known as elastography.

This new technology has the potential to make skin cancer diagnosis a lot simpler and less painful for patients because, like all ultrasound techniques, it is non-invasive. Using this new form of ultrasound machines technology has proven to be highly successful in differentiating between benign and malignant skin abnormalities.

In the United States, over a million people are diagnosed with some form of skin cancer every year. While melanoma is still the rarest form of skin cancer, it is also the most deadly because it often goes undiagnosed. Had they been detected sooner, most cases of melanoma would have been cured, which could have prevented nearly 12,000 deaths in 2009 alone.

One would think that dermatologists would be practiced enough in identifying skin cancer that they would catch most cases of it with the naked eye, but in many people, malignant lesions can appear benign at first glance, especially early on. By using high frequency elastography, doctors will now be able to perform a quick, noninvasive test right in their office, using a special type of ultrasound machine. In many cases, this technique may help patients avoid a biopsy, and in other cases it may cause their doctor to take a second look at an otherwise un-suspicious lesion.

Elastography works by measuring the elasticity, or relative stiffness of a specific lesion. Because malignant lesions tend to be stiffer than non-cancerous growths, doctors can more readily detect the presence of skin cancer by using a specially equipped ultrasound machine.