Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-9-2025
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the timely diagnosis and treatment of many cancers, including melanoma, the fifth most common cancer in the U.S. This study aimed to quantify the disruption and recovery of melanoma detection, treatment, survival, and mortality during the pandemic by analyzing data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program from 2000 to 2021. Our epidemiological analysis found that melanoma incidence initially dropped by 14.8% (95% CI: − 17.2 to − 12.4) in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic projections. Although incidence rates substantially recovered by 2021, an estimated 10,274 patients (95% CI: − 12,824 to − 7,724) remained undiagnosed due to pandemic-related disruptions. Time-to-treatment and 1-year survival were mostly consistent with pre-pandemic trends, while melanoma-specific mortality modestly declined by 4.5% (95% CI: − 14.6 to 5.6) in 2021, though this was statistically non-significant. These findings suggest that healthcare systems adapted to the challenges posed by the pandemic, maintaining essential cancer services. However, the significant drop in melanoma diagnoses likely contributed to the observed reduction in mortality. Thus, re-establishing care for patients missed during the pandemic will be crucial to preventing a future increase in advanced-stage melanoma and related deaths.
Keywords
covid-19, incidence, melanoma, mortality, survival
Language
English
Publication Title
Archives of Dermatological Research
Rights
© The Author(s) 2025. This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Kim, U., Hoehn, R.S., Koroukian, S.M. et al. Melanoma detection, treatment, survival, and mortality through year 2 of the pandemic. Arch Dermatol Res 317, 209 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-024-03751-1
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version