Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy Improves Skin Cancer Detection and Reduces the Number of Biopsies

There has recently been an increased interest in the use of novel automated technologies for the early detection of skin malignancies. We performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical effectiveness of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in detecting malignancies in an everyday clinical setting. After a thorough visual examination and dermoscopy, 909 abnormal lesions suspicious for malignancy were detected in 481 patients who presented in a private dermatology practice between 2015 and 2017 and evaluated with the EIS system. The histopathological results of the excised lesions were compared to the Neviscore, the output of the device. In total, 443 lesions (49%) received a negative Neviscore and were thus benign. On the other hand, 466 lesions received a positive Neviscore, indicating aberrations of the physiological cell structure. Of the 909 lesions, 45% were excised after visual and EIS examination. Of the excised lesions, 16% were diagnosed histopathologically as malignant. The EIS detected melanomas with 100% accuracy. The number needed to excise decreased from 17.5 to 7.8. The predictive value for a negative Neviscore was 98.9% (true negative results). EIS was found to be a valuable adjunct support tool when making clinical assessments of potentially malignant lesions.