Infrared thermography of cutaneous melanoma metastases.

Background Differentiating melanoma metastasis from benign cutaneous lesions currently requires biopsy or costly imaging, such as positron emission tomography scans. Melanoma metastases have been observed to be subjectively warmer than similarly appearing benign lesions. We hypothesized that infrared (IR) thermography would be sensitive and specific in differentiating palpable melanoma metastases from benign lesions.