The effect of COVID-19 emergency in the management of melanoma in Italy

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely hampered the functioning of any health system, absorbing a considerable amount of resources and with the threat of widespread infection in the health services. The present survey has been carried out in Italy to evaluate if and how COVID-19 also affected skin melanoma management. We enrolled 13 Italian centres highly qualified in the diagnosis and care of skin melanoma. We compared a set of information evaluating the amount of activity for melanoma performed during February-April 2020 with the same quarter in 2019. The number of new melanoma diagnosis, biopsies, wide local excisions, overall pathology reports decreased. However, the most severe cases seem promptly managed with sentinel lymph node biopsies, new systemic treatments (north) and the total number of (advanced) treated patients (centre-south). The COVID-19 experience has underlined the need to exploit the help which may come from telemedicine.