Skin cancer occurrence: single-center experiences from period 2020–2022

Abstract

Skin cancers constitute a group of medical disorders remaining a field of interest of surgeons and dermatologists. Currently, this group is typically divided into malignant melanoma (MM) and keratinocyte cancers (KC).The aim of this study is to analyse the cases of skin cancers treated in the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery in Lodz (Poland) during the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020 to 2022) and then compare the results with the ones from pre-pandemic period (from 2017 to 2019).An analysis of histopathological files from the period between 2020 and 2022 was performed. It was based on the following criteria: sex, age, type of skin cancer, subtype of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), localization and dimensions of the tumor.The study sample consisted of 225 patients presenting 241 cases of skin cancers. There were 74 men and 151 women, the mean age was 71.7. The most common skin cancer was BCC (175 cases, 72.6%) followed by SCC (59 cases, 24.5%), melanoma (5 cases, 2.1%) and other (2 cases, 0.8% - angiosarcoma and sweat gland carcinoma).A marked reduction in the number of skins cancers detected during the pandemic period has been reported. Delay in the surgical treatment of skin tumors does not seem to affect the size of the removed lesion. Some models predicting that tumors would be larger after the confinement period are not applicable in reality. However further investigations with larger samples from multiple centres are needed to confirm these findings and to work out standards how to deal with healthcare crises in the future.