Possibilities of early optical diagnosis of skin melanoma based on three-day screening in a large industrial center of the Russian Federation

Background. Skin melanoma is a tumor with a variety of clinical course that complicates its diagnosis at the stage of primary contact. Objective. To study the possibilities of early optical diagnosis of skin melanoma during three-day screening held in the Samara region in 2019. In order to achieve it the following tasks were set: to calculate the sensitivity, specificity of skin melanoma diagnostics using digital derma-toscopy by dermatologists; calculate the sensitivity and specificity of skin melanoma diagnostics using digital dermatoscopy by oncologists of specialized center; to conduct a prospective analysis of skin melanoma diagnostics’ results in the examined patients. Results. At initial admission, 172 malignant skin tumors were suspected; 4 of them «immature» skin melanomas pT1 were detected during sur-gical treatment that amounted 4.35% of all patients with stage 1 registered in 2019. No missing skin melanoma was found based on prospective control; the sensitivity was 100%. However, the specificity in dermatologists was 78.89%, and in oncologists it was 95.24%. Conclusion. The optical methods used for skin melanoma diagnosis, in particular, clinical and dermatoscopic examination in a large-scale screening can significantly improve the quality of diagnostics due to «early» skin melanoma detection and, in the long term, reduce mortality. © 2021, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.