The melanoma cancer is one of the most common types of skin cancer that afflicts our society. Melanomas are lesions produced by genetic defects in the cells (melanocytes) that give pigmentation to the skin and protect the genetic material of the cell from being damaged by ultraviolet light. Although melanoma accounts for 1% of the cases of skin cancer, due to its aggressiveness, it is responsible for most skin cancer-related deaths. Each year, approximately 132,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and just in USA an approximate of 7,230 people will die because of it. Early detection can lead to a significant reduction in melanoma death rates.

Nowadays, there are various invasive and non-invasive detection methods of skin cancer. The invasive methods lead to high costs and long recovery processes; one of these most used invasive methods is the biopsy, which will leave scars on the skin and will expose the patient to an uncomfortable and unpleasant process. The non-invasive methods help to achieve detection without the need to penetrate the skin. One type of non-invasive method uses an infrared thermal imaging camera, which can detect the difference in thermal behavior between healthy and malignant tissue during the thermal recovery process after a cooling stress applied to the skin, letting early detection of melanoma. Such a thermal behavior can be simulated computationally, with a good approximation to reported case studies, using a bioheat transfer analysis. This study proposes a numerical model where the geometry used permits to obtain results similar to experimental results found in the technical literature. For this geometry, specific property values are assigned to each skin layer and to the melanoma, making use of the Pennes equation to get a solution as close to reality as possible. In order to determine which geometric parameters of the lesion have the most influence on the thermal response when undergoing a thermal cooling and recovery process, nine different cases were proposed for this study (modifying three parameters of the geometry of the melanoma: depth, diameter and geometric shape). By using a Pareto diagram and normal probability graphs resulting from a 23 design with a midpoint, it is possible to determine the influence of each parameter. Using these results and the normal probability plot confirm that the diameter and the geometric shape of the lesion are the parameters that most influence the thermal response.


Numerical Analysis of Depth and Sizing in Skin Cancer Lesions

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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