Prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants have been awarded for two clinical trials aiming to improve the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis in Australia.

“Skin cancer UNCUT: Beyond ‘if in doubt, cut it out’” is a randomised controlled trial of adjunctive in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy for skin cancer diagnosis. Chief Investigators are Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) Faculty Members Professor Pascale Guitera, University of Sydney, and Associate Professor Linda Martin, University of New South Wales.

‘Skin cancer is Australia’s most common and expensive cancer, however, for every skin cancer diagnosed, many benign lesions are unnecessarily removed causing scarring and expense,’ Professor Guitera said. ‘This study measures the impact of a special confocal microscope to diagnose skin cancer without surgery,’ Associate Professor Martin added.

Confocal microscopy (CM) is highly accurate technology but is not widely available. The trial will measure the reduction in unnecessary biopsies and cost savings of CM and aims to improve accurate skin cancer diagnosis in Australia.

The 5-year NHMRC grant will enable the trial to begin in 2026, with 12 sites planned including Wagga Wagga, Brisbane, Townsville, Adelaide and Perth.

A separate NHMRC grant was also awarded for the Automate Me randomised clinical trial which will assess whether skin cancer screening can be automated.

The Australian Centre of Excellence for Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis (ACEMID) program is a unique network of 3D skin imaging machines in 16 regional and metropolitan health services across Victoria, NSW and Queensland. It includes machines in MIA’s The Poche Centre and at our Wagga Wagga site.

8,600 participants have already been prospectively enrolled in the ACEMID Cohort Study which has enabled development of a prototype AI algorithm that can be used to automatically detect suspicious skin lesions that need a clinician’s attention. The NHMRC grant will enable the Automate Me trial to prospectively test whether skin cancer screening can be automated in this way.

‘The trial is key to assessing the feasibility of incorporating AI and the 3D skin imaging machines as an option for melanoma screening,’ said Professor H. Peter Soyer, one of the Chief Investigators for the Automate Me trial.

Melanoma Institute Australia is leading development of a roadmap to evidence-based skin cancer screening on behalf of the federal government.