[State of the art in melanoma diagnosis]

The incidence of melanoma has been rising over the ten last years and is increasing faster than for other cancers. According to informations of the national cancer registry, there are approximately 1500 new cases of melanoma per year in Switzerland. The incidence for melanoma is 7.5 new cases per 100000 inhabitants per year for Europe, 17.9 for Switzerland and 24.7 in the Canton of Geneva. Often the diagnosis is made in advanced stages which is the reason why melanoma is responsible for more than 90% of all skin cancer related deaths. In this context screening and early diagnosis are particularly important. In this article we are going to review the different established techniques for non invasive melanoma diagnosis as well as some very promising approaches which are still at an experimental stage.