ANN ARBOR, MI – University of Michigan researchers have developed a method for patients to test for skin cancer at home, similar to a COVID-19 test.
A group of researchers from Nagrath Laboratory, headed by Sunitha Nagrath, a UM professor of chemical engineering, have developed a two-line strip test and micro-needle patch called ExoPatch to potentially detect melanoma from home.
Researchers used mice trials to develop this home detection kit for the highly fatal form of skin cancer.
The ExoPatch uses tiny needles coated with a special hydrogel to collect interstitial fluid from between skin cells. This fluid can then be tested for signs of melanoma using a two-line strip test. The microneedles are 0.6 millimeters long and less than 0.0001 millimeters wide.
The researchers found patients can put the ExoPatch on their skin wherever they suspect they have melanoma and, after 30 minutes, dissolve the hydrogel from the patch on the strip test to identify skin cancer, mimicking the test strips for COVID-19 detection kits.
“These days people want to take the liquid samples such as urine, blood and tears,” Yoon-Tae Kang, a staff scientist at Bio-Rad Laboratories and former UM postdoctoral fellow, said. “We are hoping to see some of the marker in this leakage sample.”
Patients typically detect melanoma through a biopsy called dermoscopy, where patients removed a part of the mole they suspected was cancerous and sent the tissue sample to a pathology laboratory for inspection.
Scott Smith, a recent UM doctoral graduate and former lab researcher, said an at-home test is preferable to a biopsy because patients can avoid unnecessary cuts and scars.
“They’ll have to remove the skin and stitch it up depending on how big it is,” Smith said. “If it ends up being benign or non-cancerous, then now you have a scar.”
Another reason Smith mentioned was that patients sometimes waited for months before seeing a doctor for their biopsy. He said at-home tests will make melanoma detection widely available.
Nagrath shared that moles can sometimes turn into melanoma, and at-home kits would provide assurance by allowing patients to test for skin cancer at any time.
“At-home kits would give you an assurance that you can test it later, no matter it was benign,” Nagrath said.
Over eight in 10 cases of melanoma, which causes the majority of skin cancer-related deaths, are caused by overexposure solar ultraviolet rays from the sun, according to Cleveland Clinic. The clinic also reports about three in 10 melanoma cases begin in existing moles.
Kang added at-home tests do not require another doctor to perform the test as patients can test on themselves.
Nagrath said she hopes because the material costs of ExoPatches are inexpensive, consumers could buy the at-home kits for a few dollars once they enter the market.
The next research steps are to test ExoPatches on human patients, apply for federal research grants and find commercial partners, according to Nagrath. She said the team has a pending U.S. patent and hopes to find business partners to bring ExoPatches to the market soon.
“If you don’t invest in the money and our resources in basic science and technology, we will never reach anyone in this technology,” Nagrath said.
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