Preliminary study for non – invasive optical detection of squamous and basal cell carcinomas

BACKGROUND: The early detection of skin cancer may highly increase the chances of its healing. One of the non-invasive methods of such detection based on the Oblique- Incidence Diffuse Reflectance (OIDR) measurements of the reflected diode laser light from the skin. In this research we designed and implemented the OIDR reflectometry measuring system with a 650 nm diode laser source to aid physicians in diagnosing both squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and basal cell carcinomas(BCC). METHOD: The laser is delivered obliquely to the skin surface by an optical fiber fitted through a tube holder of CCD camera. The diffused reflected laser light from the skin is captured by the CCD camera and sent to a computer, which is supplied by a specially prepared Matlab program to analyze these images in order to decide in a time whether the lesion is malignant or benign. Fifty cases were diagnosed under supervision of the consultant section of The Governmental Specialized Marjan Teaching Hospital – MOH – Iraq. RESULT: The fifty diagnosed cases by this technique, the results were 90% accurate. CONCLUSION: The method of laser oblique-incidence diffuse reflectance (OIDR) combined with using the developed algorithms that have high classification rates may prove useful in the clinic as the process is fast, noninvasive and accurate.