DermTech Melanoma Test
ICON Dermatology & Aesthetics is one of the first practices in the Bethesda, MD area to offer DermTech’s Melanoma test for patients interested in avoiding the scalpel.
More Science. Less Scalpel.
Melanoma is deadly if not caught early and can be very difficult to visually detect in the early phases. This causes dermatologists to have a low threshold for recommending a biopsy of a mole in question. This in turn leads to a lot of cutting. But not a lot of accuracy — 96% of biopsies taken test negative for melanoma. And 17% of the time, early-stage melanoma is missed altogether.
Now, there’s a step BEFORE the scalpel. The DermTech Melanoma Test is extremely accurate, with a 99% negative predictive value (that is, a 99% probability that a negative test means you really don’t have the disease).
DermTech’s proprietary process painlessly extracts RNA and DNA from skin tissue samples to find genomic markers of melanoma specifically and accurately. This occurs at a level 10,000 times closer than the traditional biopsy care pathway — all without an incision.
Earlier Detection
DermTech can detect changes in your skin at the RNA and DNA level. These happen long before enough cellular changes occur to be seen by a pathologist looking at a biopsy. This allows us to catch melanoma earlier — a critical factor in beating the disease.
More Accurate
With the current biopsy care pathway, early melanoma can be missed up to 17% of the time. A DermTech Melanoma Test misses less than 1%. So you can detect the disease more accurately, even earlier.
Without Cutting
We collect your skin’s cells with an adhesive. This means no pain, no scalpel, no cutting, and no scarring. This is a wonderful option for patients with a significant number of somewhat atypical or abnormal appearing moles.
The Sticker: Looks Simple. Acts Revolutionary.
This looks like a sticker. But that’s where the simplicity ends. The proprietary adhesive is strong enough to pull 1.5 milligrams of tissue from the top layers of your skin (where its genomic information can be accessed), but not so strong that it would cause pain, bleeding, or damage to the site.
The adhesive not only lifts the genomic material but stores and preserves it so it can be sent to DermTech’s Gene Lab for examination.
Unlike a biopsy, which evaluates only 1-2% of the mole, DermTech’s smart sticker captures cells from 100% of the mole’s surface.
The Gene Lab: A Different Kind of Lab
At DermTech’s dedicated on-site lab, a team of experts and Clinical Laboratory Scientists (CLS) oversee a fully automated testing process run by state-of-the-art, proprietary instrumentation.
A custom designed space in La Jolla, California, the Gene Lab is the first and only commercial lab to extract nucleic acid (and other proteins) from non-invasive skin samples.
When the sticker samples arrive there, they undergo an automated process that amplifies RNA molecules. The following analysis determines if one or both genes that are highly predictive of melanoma, PRAME and LINC00518, are detectable in the sample.
The Science: More Than the Eye Can See
Cancer starts when genes mutate within a cell. This altered cell duplicates and duplicates until enough cells exist to be seen under a microscope (and then, eventually, even without one). DermTech’s genomic analysis can find these altered cancerous cells long before they show up under a microscope, through a proprietary gene expression test.
The expression test to search for PRAME and LINC00518 is done through an amplification process called RT-PCR (a polymerase chain reaction) that makes billions of copies of these genes so our scientists can study them in detail. When this analysis shows excessive levels of the PRAME and/or LINC00518 gene, it correlates with the presence of melanoma.
This is all happening at the genomic level with molecules more than 10,000 times smaller than cells — critical for the early detection of the disease.
The Tech is Advanced. The Process is Easy.
LIFT
A series of DermTech Smart Stickers are used to painlessly collect skin cells from a suspicious skin spot—no scalpel needed.
TEST
At DermTech’s Gene Lab, a proprietary process looks for the presence of elevated expression levels of two genes proven to correlate with melanoma, LINC and PRAME, as well as a DNA driver mutations called TERT.
KNOW
Results are sent to us in less than 5 business days. Your dermatologist will use this information to choose the best path forward. If any of these genomic markers are found, this will typically result in additional testing of the mole. If not, you’ve likely saved yourself a scar!
Our board-certified dermatologists are excited to be one of the only dermatology practices in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC area to offer the DermTech Melanoma test. If you are concerned about melanoma and skin cancer, please schedule an appointment for an exam with one of our board-certified dermatologists by calling us at (301) 810-3600.