Impact of the French COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown on newly diagnosed melanoma delay and severity

Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the severity of newly-diagnosed primary cutaneous melanoma: A retrospective regional study in France

“…As reported previously in the literature, we observed a reduction in new cases during the complete 55-day lockdown [2] , [3] . This may be explained by cancelation of appointments and by patients’ fear of contracting COVID-19 at visits.…”

“…After lockdown, we found no clinical or histopathological differences compared to the pre-lockdown period, thus militating in favor of minimal impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the severity of cutaneous melanoma. Some studies found more aggressive, thicker, reported diagnosis of more ulcerated melanomas after lockdown compared to a similar period before the pandemic [2] , [3] , [5] . However, other smaller studies showed no difference in the severity of melanomas after lockdown [1] , [6] , with similar results being seen in a very large national study, although ulceration was not analyzed [4] .…”

“…Consequently, delayed cancer staging together with higher-stage diagnosis were thus anticipated. Assessment of the impact on the severity of primary cutaneous melanoma newly diagnosed after lockdown varied, with some studies identifying thicker melanomas, while others found no difference [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] . The aim of our study was to determine the effects of the lockdown on the clinical and histopathological characteristics of invasive cutaneous melanomas newly diagnosed in private practice.…”

Reply to ‘Impact of the French COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown on newly diagnosed melanoma delay and severity’ by R. Molinier et al.

“…COVID‐19 pandemic era deeply impacted on worldwide healthcare systems, either for COVID‐19 management difficulties or non‐COVID related diseases, causing a reduction in the number of accesses in dermatological departments during the lockdown period. We read with great interest the article written by R. Molinier et al, 1 reporting the impact of COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown on newly diagnosed melanoma; particularly, the authors reported a reduction of 8.2% in newly diagnosed melanoma in the year 2020 compared to the year 2019, with a significant number of severe cases at first diagnosis after the lockdown period, by evaluating Breslow index, ulceration and neurotropism. Herein, we report the experience of a third level centre in the South of Italy regarding the impact of COVID‐19 on the number and severity of newly diagnosed melanoma.…”

Delays in melanoma presentation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide multi-institutional cohort study

“…In this nationwide multi-institutional study, we observed increased proportions of more advanced melanomas with aggressive features, 1 similar to smaller cohort studies abroad and in the United States. 2,3 Our findings, coupled with declining rates of new melanoma cases nationally, suggest that melanoma cases went undiagnosed during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently presented at later stages. 4 As the proportion of internal diagnoses vs referrals and time from biopsy to wide local excision remained stable in our study, it is unlikely that patients simply sought care elsewhere during the pandemic or that procedural delays caused the observed findings.…”