Melanoma is one of the less common types of skin cancer, but it accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths (about 75%). The five-year survival rate for early-stage melanoma is high (98%), but the rate drops precipitously if the cancer is detected late or there is recurrence.

So a great deal rides on the accuracy of initial surgery, where the goal is to remove as little tissue as possible while obtaining “clean margins” all around the tumor.

Up till now, no imaging technique has been up to the task of resolving the melanoma accurately enough to guide surgery. Instead, surgeons tend to cut well beyond the visible margins of the lesion to be certain they remove all the malignant tissue.

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