September 22, TASS. Scientists from Samara University and the Institute of Electronics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will jointly develop a comprehensive method for optical non-invasive diagnostics of skin neoplasms, which will bring the accuracy of detection and classification of skin pathologies to the level of 95-98%, the Russian university's press service announced. The first research results were published in Optical Engineering, a well-respected scientific journal dedicated to the research, development and use of optical science and optical engineering.
Based on the developed method, it is planned to create a device for conducting mass and operational screening examinations of the population in polyclinics, for example, during a medical examination — to check a suspicious mole or a spot on the skin, it will only be necessary to direct a laser beam at them, after which the program on a laptop in accordance with the algorithms will allow to present a more accurate diagnosis.
"The idea of our joint research with our Bulgarian colleagues is to combine several already well-developed and well-known approaches in the optical diagnosis of skin neoplasms. Due to this combination of techniques, the diagnostic accuracy will be comprehensively increased — as expected, to the level of 95-98%," the press service quoted Ivan Bratchenko, associate professor of the department of laser and biotechnical systems at Samara University.
According to the researcher, scientists plan to combine such types of diagnostics of skin neoplasms as the Raman analysis (with an accuracy of determining cancer pathologies at the level of 80-90%), analysis of fluorescence in the near infrared region (accuracy of about 60%) and analysis of fluorescence in the visible spectral regions (accuracy about 65-80%).
The diagnostic device that is planned to be created based on the results of the research will be quite compact — about the size of a shoebox, and doctors will be able to take it with them, for example, when traveling to remote places for medical examination of the locals.
The work is carried out within the framework of a grant received as a result of the competition for the best scientific fundamental research projects, which was jointly carried out by the RFBR and the National Science Foundation of Bulgaria. The project will be completed within two years. Specialists from the Samara State Medical University and the Samara Regional Clinical Oncology Dispensary (SRCOD) also participate in the research.