Middlesea Valletta Life (MSV), this year reconfirmed its support for the Gozo Melanoma Screening Study.

This project is the first of its kind worldwide. It tests all the over16 population of a complete geographical area. Regular sessions have been conducted over a three-year period, due to the collaboration of MSV as one of the project’s co-sponsors, and the continuous support of the Gozitan authorities together with local councils and parish priests.

During this three-year period, around 2000 persons have been examined. The final results are being analysed in detail and to date it appears that the group under examination have a low frequency of both melanoma and also of pigmented ‘naevi’, which are acknowledged as precursors of melanoma .

MSV is committed to promoting health and is aware of the need to support initiatives which promote health. The Company has been a sponsor of this project since its inception.

This project was initiated in Malta in November 2004 by Italian researchers Prof. Marco Burroni and Lucio Andreassi from Siena, in collaboration with the Maltese Association of Dermatology and Venereology, with the full support of the Ministry for Gozo.

Through this project, every adult in Gozo over 16 years of age is being offered a computer-aided diagnostic examination related to melanoma over three years.

Developed by Italian dermatological researchers Marco Burroni and Giordana dell’Eva, the DDA-Mips System is based on a computer-linked dermatoscope that enables assessment of certain characteristics of pigmented lesions that are not visible to the naked eye, thus providing an additional diagnostic aid to the dermatologist.

It is suggested that use of this advanced technology can increase diagnostic accuracy from 75% up to 92%. In this situation, this new technique offers a significant improvement in the all important early diagnosis of a potentially fatal condition.

When the Italian researchers were seeking a small country whose entire population could be offered screening for melanoma, Professor Joseph Pace successfully made a strong case for Gozo to be the first ever venue to host this important medical project. The island’s particular demographic characteristics were an added attraction, since the importance of genetic factors might also be studied. As a result of close co-operation with colleagues in Siena, state of the art computer aided diagnostic technology was made available for a limited period of time, to enable a number of Gozitan persons to be given a short screening test on any pigmented lesions. The spot under suspicion is simply covered with a hand-piece (a small microscope) and the image, in a fraction of a second, is compared to many thousands of others stored in the computer.