More than skin deep: Can body heat help find skin cancer?

Dr Inġ. Stefania Cristina will be delivering the talk 'More than skin deep: Can body heat help find skin cancer?'

For many people with a suspicious skin lesion, the journey to a diagnosis can be long and uncertain. Following an initial consultation, patients are often referred to hospital, where the lesion may be surgically removed and sent for histopathological analysis before a definitive diagnosis can be made. While this pathway is essential, it can involve weeks of waiting, causing anxiety for patients and placing considerable demands on the hospital's histopathology resources.

ThermaScan aims to ease this burden by providing an additional triage tool that helps distinguish lesions that require immediate intervention from those that are likely to be benign and can instead be safely monitored.

The ThermaScan project explores whether thermal imaging, combined with artificial intelligence and computer vision, can help identify suspicious skin lesions in a fast, non-invasive, and radiation-free way. By analysing the unique thermal signatures of healthy and abnormal tissue, the project aims to develop new tools that could complement traditional dermatological examinations, making screening more accessible.

In this Café Scientifique, we will explore the science behind thermal imaging, discover how computer algorithms can extract and interpret patterns that are invisible to the human eye, and discuss the scientific and practical challenges of undertaking research at the intersection of medicine, engineering, and artificial intelligence.

Could the heat our bodies naturally produce one day become an ally in the fight against skin cancer?

Join us to find out. More information including tickets is available online.