LOS GATOS, Calif., May 15, 2025 — In a recently published article in the International Journal of Dermatology, researchers at the Mayo Clinic describe the role of the stromal tumor environment (STE) in facilitating tumor growth and its progression to cancer. This STE ecosystem can influence complex interactions and propel critical processes that alter the tumor microenvironment to allow cancer development and may be an untapped source for early cancer detection. The authors focus on melanoma as an ideal model for STE study and discuss several imaging modalities, including a novel method, Skin Fluorescent Imaging (SFI). The SFI is a noninvasive in vivo molecular technology that identifies avβ3 integrin, which is expressed in the STE as a mole transitions to melanoma. Dr. Catherine Shachaf, President and Chief Science Officer at Orlucent, Inc., the company that developed the SFI, is a co-author of the article which can be read here.