The ±«Óătv Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, in collaboration with the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, has positioned Tampa Bay at the forefront of skin cancer diagnostics by implementing breakthrough imaging technology that could transform cancer detection.
The Line-Field Confocal Optical Coherence Tomography (LC-OCT) system provides three-dimensional images of skin layers in real time, helping doctors determine whether a biopsy is necessary by offering immediate, detailed visualization of suspicious lesions.
Traditional skin biopsies require numbing the area, cutting tissue and waiting up to a week or more for laboratory results. The new system delivers results in under a minute and is painless.
Dr. James Grichnik uses LC-OCT on a patient's skin at the VA.
“This is brand-new technology. It is cutting edge, and we have it here as part of our ±«Óătv program,” said James Grichnik, MD, chair of ±«Óătv Health's department of dermatology, a MCOM professor and Neil Alan Fenske MD Endowed Chair.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved the technology for diagnosing basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer. The tool is a significant advancement that will provide patients a less intrusive alternative, said Thomas Beachkofsky, MD, a dermatologist at the Haley VA.
“It provides a solution for patients as nobody wants to have a biopsy of their skin if they don't have to. If you can simply take an image, make a diagnosis and start some type of therapeutic treatment regimen, that would be a better solution for most patients,” he said.
Dr. Thomas Beachkofsky reviews an image.
Not only does this imaging system improve patient care, but it also reduces health care costs by helping doctors avoid unnecessary biopsies as well as shortening the time between diagnosis and treatment.
“What this allows us to do is take lesions where we're 50-50 on whether it's a skin cancer or not — we can go to this device and now we're probably 95 percent sure on whether that lesion's a skin cancer,” Dr. Grichnik said.
±«Óătv Health medical residents who rotate through the clinic will also gain first-hand experience with the cutting-edge technology, thanks to a partnership between ±«Óătv Health and the VA that also offers patient care and research opportunities for residents and MCOM students.
Dr. James Grichnik
“My hope is that we're going to get to a point where it's better to be visualizing this tissue at the bedside than removing it and having to stain it for a biopsy,” Dr. Grichnik said. “It's a very exciting time, and I'm excited that we can be among those folks leading this effort.”