Timed to coincide with the beginning of Melanoma Awareness Month, L’Oréal-owned SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, and La Roche-Posay are announcing a three-year partnership with the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) — to help raise awareness of melanoma and improve detection and treatment.

The MRA is the largest non-profit organization to fund melanoma research, and L’Oréal USA has been its partner since 2013.

To begin the new partnership, the three brands have established the L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty Brands-MRA Team Science Award. 

The award will be presented to researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine who are studying how Artificial Intelligence (AI) within dermatologic practices can be used to improve melanoma detection.

The award will support work being led by Dr. Roberto Novoa, which has the potential to improve the early detection of melanoma, when it is most treatable. The partnership is supporting research that will help highlight ideal use-cases and the unforeseen benefits or pitfalls of AI implementation in clinical practice.

Marc Toulemonde, group president, L’Oréal USA’s Active Cosmetics Division, says, “We are proud to partner with the Melanoma Research Alliance to help advance this crucial research in skin cancer prevention and detection using sophisticated AI technology. It is our hope that our work together will bring much-needed attention to melanoma and the role of dermatologists serving on its frontlines.”

Promoting the Skin Check Pledge

L’Oréal and MRA will also work together to raise awareness of the need for early detection by directing patients and consumers to the Skin Check Pledge microsite.

“Dermatologists serve a critical role in the early detection of melanoma,” says MRA President & CEO Michael Kaplan. “This partnership with L’Oréal will help us better harness the power of new tools – like machine learning and artificial intelligence – needed to help dermatologists make an even bigger impact in the fight against melanoma.”

Early detection is critical because when caught early, melanoma is highly curable. Even though treatments for advanced melanomas have improved significantly in the last decade, an estimated 6,800 people will succumb to the disease this year.