The invisible colours of melanoma. A telespectrophotometric diagnostic approach on pigmented skin lesions.

Reflectance images of 43 pigmented lesions of the skin (18 melanomas, 17 common melanocytic naevi and eight dysplastic naevi) were acquired by a telespectrophotometric system and were analysed in the spectral range from 420 to 1040 nm, to discriminate melanoma from benign melanocytic entities. Different evaluations were carried out considering the whole spectrum, the visible and the near infra-red. A total of 33 (76.7%) lesions were correctly diagnosed by the telespectrophotometric system, compared with 35 (81.4%) correct clinical diagnoses. Reflectance in the infra-red band appears diagnostically relevant. A larger study is needed to prove the validity of this diagnostic method.