Hidden in plain sight: the (other) danger of COVID-19

The Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) first emerged in Wuhan province, China, in late November 2019 and changed public healthcare perception. It has caused a significant decline in attendance to outpatient clinics. However, other diseases have not stopped, including malignant melanoma. Survey of the number of visits to plastic surgery outpatient clinic during the first lockdown in Israel concerning malignant melanoma was compared to the same months in the previous years. We assessed the number of visits to the oncology department during 2020 compared to the number of visits and treatment protocols for malignant melanoma. During the first lockdown, the attendance at the plastic surgery outpatient clinic and ambulatory surgery decreased significantly (P = 0.002), both in excisions of suspected malignant melanoma and malignant melanoma follow-ups (P = 0.019 and P = 0.035, respectively). The last third of 2020 (from September to December) had shown a significant rise in new protocols commenced (P
Source: Melanoma Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Short Communications Source Type: research