A new examination, to be carried out in the clinic, which analyzes every single skin lesion and, without any tissue sampling, is able to verify its benign or malignant nature. The method, which has not yet fully entered clinical practice, is called LC-OCT (Line-field Confocal Optical Coherence Tomography) and was recently acquired by the Dermatology Complex Operational Unit of the A. Gemelli IRCCS University Hospital in Rome.
“We are among the very few in Italy to have this device and at the moment we are the only ones in Lazio. LC-OCT allows you to perform a real virtual biopsy in a completely painless and non-invasive way”, says the director of the ‘Ketty Peris operating unit, full professor of Dermatology at the Catholic University, Rome campus.
The advantages offered by this method of investigation, compared to the current standard (epiluminescence), are many, explains Peris. “LC-OCT makes it possible to ‘see’ the lesions more deeply and to observe all the ‘layers’ of the lesion. In this way, therefore, a high resolution image is obtained which allows the examination to be brought almost down to the level of the single cells (‘virtual biopsy’). With epiluminescence we study the shape, color and structures of the lesion; with LC-OCT we can see the architecture (cytomorphology), the arrangement of the cells inside”. adds Peris who however specifies that “the method is still the subject of research and, as such, has not yet fully entered clinical practice.
We are part of a small European group, a collaborative network, which is working on the standardization of the diagnostic criteria of a series of skin cancers, through this method”, he concludes. (ANSA).
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