The Hotspots of Skin Cancer: Utilizing Thermal Imaging for Diagnosis

Presenter

Shriya Shukla

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Steven D. Brewer, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C39, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 4 (C31-C40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Cancer is a disease where some cells start to grow out of control anywhere in the human body and spread throughout the body as the disease progresses. Melanoma, also known as malignant melanoma and cutaneous melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops when melanocytes start to grow out of control. To be able to treat melanoma, identifying melanoma early on is vital. A non-invasive method being researched to detect melanoma early on is thermal-imaging technology. Thermography is an imaging technique that uses infrared-imaging technology to find changes in temperature in the human body. I created and configured a simple thermal-imaging camera with Raspberry Pi to assess the potential to identify melanoma and allow researchers to replicate a simpler method to recognize skin cancer. Using a Raspberry Pi, I built a thermal imaging camera that records and shows temperature changes in normal skin, as well as in skin that has cancerous growths, eczema, acne, moles, and other diverse skin conditions. Patches of skin were treated with a cold gel pack in an anonymous study, and the heat signatures were recorded. Thermal-imaging is a straightforward and inexpensive method that can potentially contribute to the diagnosis of skin cancer in an early stage.

Keywords

Imaging

Research Area

Cancer Studies

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