MALIGNANT MELANOMA: NATIVE AND DERMOSCOPY VIEW
Cancer researchers with the Melanoma Research Project in Hamburg, Germany, and its US-based affiliate melanomaweb.net, LLC, in Tampa, Florida, USA, have released an easy-to-use interactive pc-windows software (‘MOLES N’ MORE’) to educate the lay public and teach the visual skills required to regularly perform monthly skin self-exams.
Malignant melanoma is the most dangerous skin cancer type, affecting increasingly more and more individuals worldwide, many of whom being diagnosed too late for cure. Developing on the visually accessible skin surface, melanoma can easily be diagnosed early enough to prevent its devastating outcome, if a simple skin self-exam is routinely performed on a monthly basis, comparable to the universally adopted daily tooth-brushing procedure nobody hazzles about. Establishing a simple skin self-exam routine once a month may definitely save plenty of lives in that it promotes early diagnosis at curable stages of melanoma development.
The 'MOLES 'N' MORE' software is the first comprehensive multimedia approach in its kind to offer a hassle-free introduction to the self-assessment of pigmented skin moles. It gives all the information needed to understand and recognize suspicious mole features that might be indicative of early melanoma formation. It should be noted that the 'MOLES 'N' MORE' software does not replace a physical skin exam done by a healthcare professional (physician), which is essential if a suspicious skin lesion requires definitive clarification.
In its ongoing commitment to melanoma research, the Melanoma Research Project has recently launched a worldwide prevention campaign ‘SAVE 10,000 LIVES’, aiming at the furtherance of conveying essential information on melanoma’s early signs to the lay public, and to thus get the message across that most melanomas can be cured if picked and removed in a timely fashion. Part of the prevention campaign comprises the distribution of the ‘MOLES ‘N’ MORE’ software (at a low self-cost price) to anyone (non-professionals and healthcare professionals likewise), as melanoma matters to everyone. In addition, the simple-to-use MOLE-ANALYZER tool - a plastic ruler device - is made available to family physicians and dermatologists to enable a quick one-step assessment of the ABCD criteria in a given suspicious skin lesion of concern (http://www.mole-
The ‘MOLES ‘N’ MORE’ software runs on Windows 9+ pc systems and requires a javascript-activated internet browser (any) with activated flash and java plugins. Due to HQ-multimedia content, it requires 400 MB disk space on the pc’s installation drive, with a zipped download file size of about 230 MB. It comes with ready-to-print forms (skin check form, skin check cue card, histology check form) in pdf file format that can be edited (directly drawing comments/sketches into pdf forms) using the included pdf annotation trial software. A demo video and a quick spot check module to run on mobile phones can be downloaded for free from the project’s website (http://www.molesnmore.com).
