A unique Australian technology that will greatly improve the chances of early detection of skin cancers and help save the lives of melanoma victims will be launched in Sydney today.

The Skin Polarprobe® , an automated melanoma diagnosis system, will be unveiled at the 4th World Conference on Melanoma at Darling Harbour.

Polartechnics Ltd will present a commercial exhibit at the conference and Dr Scott Menzies of the Sydney Melanoma Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, will deliver a paper on the Skin Polarprobe.

Melanoma is the third most common cancer in Australia for both men and women. This country has the highest melanoma rate in the world.

Polartechnics' Skin Polarprobe, designed in collaboration with CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences and the Sydney Melanoma Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, offers unique benefits to aid early detection of melanoma, the key to reducing the more than 1000 deaths in Australia each year caused by this cancer.

Many GPs have difficulty diagnosing melanoma, but with the Skin Polarprobe the suspect lesion can be automatically diagnosed in the surgery without the need for time-consuming and often unnecessary excisions and biopsies.

The Skin Polarprobe:

* Aids physician diagnosis: a hand-held high resolution camera acts as a microscope showing fine detail of the lesion

*Contains powerful real-time Computer Aided Diagnosis: the software highlights suspicious regions that might be missed by a physician's visual examination

* Monitors lesions: images of the lesion are stored so the physician can monitor their condition and appearance over time

Diagnosis of a melanoma is carried out by capturing an image of the lesion by the Polarprobe camera which is downloaded into the computer system. Hairs are masked out and the boundary is identified.

Sophisticated algorithms developed by CSIRO researchers and the Sydney Melanoma Unit compare colour, patterns and geometry, among other features, with a database to determine whether the lesion is in fact a melanoma. With this almost immediate diagnosis, patients with melanoma can begin treatment as soon as possible.

More information:

Dr Michael Hirshorn
Polartechnics Limited ph 02-9358 3276
polartech@real.com.au fax 02 9368 1070

Dr Mark Berman
CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences
ph: 02 9325 3209 fax 02 9325 3200
mark.berman@cmis.csiro.au

Scott Menzies
Sydney Melanoma Unit ph 02 9515 6060
scott@mel.rpa.cs.nsw.gov.au

Kate Brown, CSIRO ph 02 9325 3102