Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis of human plasma in melanoma patients with or without regional lymph node metastases

Melanoma malignum (MM) is a common type of skin cancer, and its incidence is increasing in the general population. We aimed to detect blood plasma components with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in 15 white adult MM patients, who had histopathologically diagnosed, operable cutaneous MM without any distant metastases. We observed that thermal changes (second T-m, calorimetric enthalpy) in blood plasma showed correlation with tumor thickness and the extent of regional invasion. Further studies are needed to elucidate these relationships, but our preliminary work has provided DSC should be a new tool for the early diagnosis and monitoring of MM patients.