Poor agreement between the automated risk assessment of a smartphone application for skin cancer detection and the rating by dermatologists

Background: Several smartphone applications (app) with an automated risk assessment claim to be able to detect skin cancer at an early stage. Various studies that have evaluated these apps showed mainly poor performance. However, all studies were done in patients and lesions were mainly selected by a specialist. Objectives: To investigate the performance of the automated risk assessment of an app by comparing its assessment to that of a dermatologist in lesions selected by the participants. Methods: Participants of a National Skin Cancer Day were enrolled in a multicentre study. Skin lesions indicated by the participants were analysed by the automated risk assessment of the app prior to blinded rating by the dermatologist. The ratings of the automated risk assessment were compared to the assessment and diagnosis of the dermatologist. Due to the setting of the Skin Cancer Day, lesions were not verified by histopathology. Results: We included 125 participants (199 lesions). The app was not able to analyse 90 cases (45%) of which nine BCC, four atypical naevi and one lentigo maligna. Thirty lesions (67%) with a high and 21 with a medium risk (70%) rating by the app were diagnosed as benign naevi or seborrhoeic keratoses. The interobserver agreement between the ratings of the automated risk assessment and the dermatologist was poor (weighted kappa = 0.02; 95% CI −0.08-0.12; P = 0.74). Conclusions: The rating of the automated risk assessment was poor. Further investigations about the diagnostic accuracy in real-life situations are needed to provide consumers with reliable information about this healthcare application

Pijn bij dermatologische ingrepen

The number of surgical procedures performed by the average dermatologist is increasing. During every procedure, some form of pain is experienced by the patient. Research investigating pain during dermatologic surgery is scarce. Some available prospective studies about postoperative pain after Mohs-surgery, identified possible risk factors for pain: age, type of closure, number of Mohsstages and number of excision sites. This list is probably not yet complete. There are several methods to minimize pain during injection of local anaesthetics, such as the buffering of the anaesthetic with sodium bicarbonate and the use of a small needle size. Research dealing with peri-operative pain during dermatologic surgery needs to be expanded to identify risk factors associated with hyperalgesia and to improve patient care and patient satisfaction

Diagnostiek, behandeling en nazorg van het basaalcelcarcinoom

Het basaalcelcarcinoom (BCC) is de meest voorkomende vorm van kanker in Nederland (80% van alle huidkankers). Het aantal BCC’s is in ruim 35 jaar tijd enorm toegenomen en deze stijging zet door. Geschat wordt dat in 2020 de incidentie zelfs zal stijgen naar 234 per 100.000 persoonsjaren voor mannen en 226 per 100.000 persoonsjaren voor vrouwen. Vooral de vergrijzing in combinatie met de toegenomen hoeveelheid zonlichtexpositie vergroot het risico op het krijgen van een BCC. Dit artikel geeft een overzicht van de diagnostische procedures en de verschillende behandelmogelijkheden

Skin cancer: From smearing to cutting

The most common skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Conventional excision is still the current treatment of choice for these malignant tumours. Given the many subtypes and high incidence, the treatment of these skin tumours is not only a matter of surgical procedures. There are many different therapeutic options, from smearing to cutting. Those treating patients with non-melanoma skin cancer should have knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of these many options. Radical surgical treatment is desired, but large margins are preferably avoided. Mohs micrographic surgery is a treatment option available for BCC and SCC in the face. Superficial BCC can be effectively treated with optimal cosmetic outcome in various, non-invasive ways

Diagnostic Value of Optical Coherence Tomography Image Features for Diagnosis of Basal Cell Carcinoma

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive diagnostic method. Numerous morphological OCT features have been described for diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of established OCT features and to explore whether the use of a small set of OCT features enables accurate discrimination between BCC and non-BCC lesions and between BCC subtypes. For each lesion, the presence or absence of specific OCT features was recorded. Histopathology was used as a gold standard. Diagnostic parameters were calculated for each OCT feature, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the loss in discriminative ability when using a small subset of OCT features instead of all features that are characteristic for BCC according to the literature. The results show that the use of a limited number of OCT features allows for good discrimination of superficial BCC from non-superficial BCC and non-BCC lesions. The prevalence of BCC was 75.3% (225/299) and the proposed diagnostic algorithm enabled detection of 97.8% of BCC lesions (220/225). Subtyping without the need for biopsy was possible in 132 of 299 patients (44%), with a predictive value for presence of superficial BCC of 84.3% vs 98.8% for presence of non-superficial BCC

Diagnostic Value of Optical Coherence Tomography Image Features for Diagnosis of Basal Cell Carcinoma

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive diagnostic method. Numerous morphological OCT features have been described for diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of established OCT features and to explore whether the use of a small set of OCT features enables accurate discrimination between BCC and non-BCC lesions and between BCC subtypes. For each lesion, the presence or absence of specific OCT features was recorded. Histopathology was used as a gold standard. Diagnostic parameters were calculated for each OCT feature, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the loss in discriminative ability when using a small subset of OCT features instead of all features that are characteristic for BCC according to the literature. The results show that the use of a limited number of OCT features allows for good discrimination of superficial BCC from nonsuperficial BCC and non-BCC lesions. The prevalence of BCC was 75.3% (225/299) and the proposed diagnostic algorithm enabled detection of 97.8% of BCC lesions (220/225). Subtyping without the need for biopsy was possible in 132 of 299 patients (44%), with a predictive value for presence of superficial BCC of 84.3% vs 98.8% for presence of non-superficial BCC