DermTech’s telemedicine solution enables dermatologists to maintain vigilance with their patients in detecting melanoma at the earliest stages by bringing precision medicine to a remote specimen collection environment
Histopathologic image of malignant melanoma. (Credit: Wikipedia.org/KGH)
DermTech announced that its lead non-invasive melanoma detection test, the DermTech Pigmented Lesion Assay (the DermTech PLA), is now available for use by clinicians and their patients via telemedicine. DermTech is the leader in precision dermatology with its adhesive patch test technology providing objective genomics data to help guide clinical decisions. This first-of-its-kind genomic diagnostic test enables patients, under the order of a physician, to non-invasively sample a lesion suspicious for melanoma at home via a supervised telemedicine appointment. DermTech’s teledermatology offering comes at a critical time for patients and physicians because it eliminates the need for unnecessary office visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Melanoma is the most deadly and aggressive form of skin cancer, and early detection is critical to provide patients with their best chance for a cure. It is the fastest growing cancer worldwide, and in the U.S. alone, melanoma diagnoses increased 53% from 2008 to 2018. For decades, biopsies have been the standard method for testing suspicious moles for melanoma, but using a scalpel to remove a portion of the mole is not always necessary and can be painful and leave scarring behind. Of the 4.5 million skin biopsies performed annually in the U.S. to rule out melanoma, approximately 180,000 cases of melanoma are detected, demonstrating the difficulty and subjectivity in detecting melanoma based on visual assessment alone.
“While the majority of skin cancers can be relatively slow growing, melanoma is an exception to this rule and any delay in diagnosis, by even a month or two, can be the difference between life and death,” said Dr. June K. Robinson, a dermatologist who is a Research Professor of Dermatology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “The DermTech PLA is an important tool to non-invasively rule in or out melanoma in suspicious pigmented lesions with excellent accuracy. Today, in the current COVID-19 climate, the DermTech PLA is an essential tool that assists the doctor providing teledermatology care. If I identify a lesion on my patient that is concerning, the DermTech PLA Adhesive Skin Collection Kit allows me to offer this assay as a way of acquiring useful and accurate information to guide clinical decision making and determine if an office visit is necessary to remove the lesion.”
“Melanoma won’t wait – this has been our rallying cry throughout this global pandemic, and it’s the reason we made the swift decision to close our offices early on and keep our genomics lab operational so we could pivot our melanoma testing to be available via telemedicine, a solution we always planned on promoting, but which healthcare providers now need immediately in these circumstances,” said John Dobak, MD, Chief Executive Officer of DermTech. “DermTech is committed to transforming the practice of dermatology through our revolutionary non-invasive adhesive patch, which provides greater accuracy and earlier detection of melanoma. The remote use of our DermTech PLA Adhesive Skin Collection Kit enabled through teledermatology reinforces our commitment to empowering dermatologists to safely serve patients during this unprecedented time and further establishes what we believe will be a valuable new offering for years to come.”
The DermTech PLA uses a revolutionary adhesive patch technology to collect skin cells from the surface of an entire lesion without a biopsy, leaving the lesion intact to offer dermatologists the option for additional analyses if necessary. The skin cells extracted from the patch are analyzed for genetic data associated with melanoma. The DermTech PLA is highly validated with proven clinical utility, and has a 91% sensitivity with less than a 1% chance of missing a melanoma (99% NPV) in studies conducted in a clinical office setting. DermTech is collecting data to verify that these clinical study results are replicable for patient-collected samples. Since its launch in 2016, the DermTech PLA has been used to assess more than 50,000 lesions and remains the first and only non-invasive gene expression test in dermatology.
Source: Company Press Release