Nonlinear Pump-Probe Microscopy Improves Early Detection of Metastatic Melanoma

More people die from melanoma after a Stage I diagnosis (localized) than after a Stage IV diagnosis (distant metastatic disease), because the tools available to clinicians do not readily identify which early-stage cancers will be aggressive. We pursue an alternative approach, complementary to conventional histopathology, based on ultrafast pump-probe microscopy. Melanocytes, the neoplastic cells in melanoma, produce a brown to black colored pigment melanin. Analysis of the electronic and vibrational dynamics of melanin with ultrashort laser pulses reveal information like type (pheo, DHI or DHICA eumelanin) and state of aggregation, for example. We use these insights to evaluate primary tumor biopsies with the goal to distinguish between localized melanoma (without metastases) and melanoma that developed metastatic disease. In this talk we focus on our efforts of translating pump-probe microscopy into clinics and our current status on detection of metastatic disease of melanoma.