NZ doctor finds novel way of detecting skin cancer

A Christchurch doctor has found a way to detect skin cancer by analysing blood vessels below the skin's surface through the use of a perfected light dermascope device.

David Langford describes it as akin to "snorkelling around a reef". Doctor Langford found that the blood vessels below the skin's surface often had weird and unusual shapes.

"Cancer cells are crazy cells and they need crazy circulation to support them. They have all these weird blood vessels which aren't like normal vessels at all", he said.

Understanding the different blood cell shapes associated with different types of skin cancers was necessary for early diagnosis before the infection reached the malignant stage.