Funding for melanoma research

Malignant melanoma is a dangerous form of skin cancer which also affects young people. The sooner it is identified – the better the survival rates.

“We were the first doctors in Denmark to apply sophisticated scanning technologies to diagnose melanomas and other skin cancers. The Vissing Foundation has previously provided funding for our research project and we are very pleased that the Foundation has decided to offer its support again. This will help us complete our project which will improve the diagnostic options forevaluating suspicious moles and malignant melanoma markedly in a long-term perspective,” explains Mette Mogensen, Chief Consultant, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Department of Dermatology at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital.

The study supported by the Vissing Foundation continues the successful research in procedures to identify skin cancer by scanning patients with pigmented moles in the skin.

“We are now including cell samples from the skin to combine image-guided diagnostics with cellular information of scanned skin tumours. This approach can potentially provide a new, fast and accurate answer to whether a patient has a malignant melanoma. This will also allow us to offer individualized therapies according to tumour type and depth. The procedure require a single visit. Doing this, we can reduce the waiting time and the number of patient visits which sums up to about 18,000 every year. These are all patient visits concerning diagnostics, treatment and control of skin cancer,” says Mette Mogensen.

Other advantages in terms of saving time and money for analysis of skin tissue samples is another positive impact of the project.