Background
The COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected the early diagnosis of skin cancer.
Objective
To compare epidemiological, clinical and histopathological characteristics in patients undergoing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) surgery before and after the beginning of the pandemic.
Material & methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study including two case series: (1) patients operated on for SCC in the year after the first state of alarm in Spain (15 March 2020), and (2) patients with SCC operated on in the previous year. Epidemiological, clinical and histopathological variables, tumour stage and risk grade were collected.
Results
248 patients were included (127 undergoing surgery before the pandemic and 121 after the pandemic). After the beginning of the pandemic, the percentage of high-risk SCC significantly increased from 35.3% to 46.2% (p=0.011). However, no significant differences were found in thickness, perineural invasion or metastases.
Conclusions
Although there has not been a significant reduction in the number of SCC operated on after the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in high-risk SCC. All this could lead to an increase in skin cancer mortality in the future.
