Basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer
Smartphone applications that use pictures of users? skin to determine if they have deadly skin cancer are not accurate and should generally be avoided, a new study led by the University of Pittsburgh says.
The most accurate of three applications that use mathematical algorithms to scan suspected cancerous lesions missed 18 out of 60 deadly melanomas, the study shows.
?That?s a pretty big risk to take,? says lead author Laura Ferris, Ph.D.
Technically, the applications are marketed as educational only, meaning that they aren?t registered as medical devices nor regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, Reuters reported Jan. 16. Many users, however, may not realize this.
?We?re all for technology, but we need to keep it in perspective,? says Karen Edison, a dermatologist from University of Missouri in Columbia. If a user suspects the a lesion might be cancerous they need to go to the doctor, regardless of what an app tells you.
?There?s no substitute, at this point, for a complete skin exam performed by an expert dermatologist for picking up melanoma as well as other skin cancers,? Edison says.
The study appears online in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
(Photo ? Wikipedia)
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