A dermatologist and his colleagues have earned a Guinness World Record for an unusual feat: detecting the world’s smallest occurrence of skin cancer. Oregon Health & Science University assistant professor Dr. Alexander Witkowski spotted a melanoma lesion measuring just 0.65 millimeters across, helping his patient to receive treatment before the cancer could spread.
The patient, a woman named Christy Staats, had been getting a benign skin growth checked when Dr. Witkowski noticed a tiny spot on Staats’ right cheek. He immediately used a clip-on smartphone accessory called Sklip to photograph the area. Not only did Sklip identify potential signs of skin cancer within the resulting high-definition image, but Dr. Witkowski was able to spot similar anomalies using a virtual biopsy technique called reflectance confocal microscopy, which offers real-time in vivo visualization of the skin’s layers.
The dermatologist then performed a physical biopsy and sent the sample to OHSU’s pathology and molecular testing labs. There, OHSU confirmed that Staats had a very early case of micro-melanoma in situ—meaning the cancer had yet to spread to another area of the body. Dr. Witkowski worked with the physicians and researchers in the lab to write about their diagnostics process in a paper for Dermatology Practical & Conceptual, published earlier this year.
At just over half a millimeter across, Staats’ seemingly innocuous spot constituted the smallest melanoma lesion ever detected, earning Dr. Witkowski and his colleagues certificates from Guinness World Records on Monday. In a statement, Staats told OHSU she believes she was in the “right place at the right time…with the right technology,” to catch the cancer before it could metastasize.
Early detection is critical to beating any cancer, but it’s particularly vital with melanoma. Despite comprising only 1% of all known skin cancer occurrences, melanoma causes most skin cancer-related deaths. Catching the disease early—before it can reach other layers of the skin or enter the bloodstream—is the easiest way to remove it from the body via surgery alone.