{"id":86161,"date":"2013-11-19T14:46:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T19:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=86161"},"modified":"2015-09-23T16:17:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T20:17:56","slug":"new-imaging-tool-bypasses-blade-to-check-for-skin-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/11\/new-imaging-tool-bypasses-blade-to-check-for-skin-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"New Imaging Tool Bypasses Blade to Check for Skin Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have a suspicious mole on your skin. It doesn\u2019t hurt, but it looks different than it did six months ago.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re reluctant to see your dermatologist, because you don\u2019t look forward to the idea of having a piece of your skin cut out for a biopsy to be studied under a microscope.<\/p>\n

\"Medical<\/a>
Medical assistant Jody D’Antonio uses confocal microscopy to image a mole on a patient’s arm. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the UConn Health Center, patients often can avoid the pain and scarring of a biopsy, thanks to a laser imaging tool that enables analysis of the skin at the cellular level.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s known as confocal microscopy, and Dr. Jane Grant-Kels<\/a>, the UConn Health Center\u2019s dermatology chair, is the only dermatologist in Connecticut trained to read the imaging this technology yields.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this technology I can actually see the cells,\u201d Grant-Kels says. \u201cIt goes just below the epidermis, into the superficial dermis. But that\u2019s deep enough for me to be able to diagnose most skin cancers, including most melanomas, basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas versus a benign lesion that does not need to be treated. The technology is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she\u2019s seen over the last several months is a noticeable decline in biopsies she\u2019s had to perform, because in many cases she can diagnose skin cancer\u2014or rule it out\u2014before that step is necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can actually look at the skin histology without doing a biopsy. That\u2019s pretty exciting,\u201d Grant-Kels says. \u201cI can look at the sections horizontally, which gives me the ability to see more pathology than I can even under the microscope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medical assistant Jody D\u2019Antonio captures the images and sends them to Grant-Kels\u2019 computer for her to analyze.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows me the lesion, and it shows me the actual cells that make up that lesion,\u201d D\u2019Antonio says. \u201cWho wants to be stuck with a needle? Who wants to be cut? Nobody wants that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Jane Grant-Kels analyzes the images and determines the lesion is benign. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grant-Kels says it\u2019s too soon to say for sure how many patients could be spared biopsies using confocal microscopy, but that it wouldn\u2019t surprise her if someday it resulted in a reduction of more than 50 percent.<\/p>\n

More information about the UConn Health Center Department of Dermatology is available at http:\/\/dermatology.uchc.edu\/<\/a> or by calling 860-679-4600.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn Health Center\u2019s dermatology chair is the only dermatologist in Connecticut trained on confocal microscopy, enabling her to analyze skin lesions on a cellular level without a biopsy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":86187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,2231,179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-86161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancer","category-health-well-being","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 08:49:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104715,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86161\/revisions\/104715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/86187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86161"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=86161"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}