S.i is often debated about the deaths “with” and the deaths “for” covid. Yet, the same people who have focused on these lexical subtleties have forgotten to deal with the most important theme: i health damage that gravitates around the covid even for people who do not become infected. In fact, the sad reality is that the health system has been turned upside down, our approach to health has changed. The pandemic has caused enormous damage, let’s think of the economic, psychological, social, educational development, training and didactic inconveniences. It will take a long time to calculate them and really understand their effects.
Melanoma, pandemic and the urgency of the diagnosis
In this direction goes a very important study conducted byIDI of Romeand published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatologists and Venerology, sees among the authors the director of the MelanomaUnit Francesco Ricci and the epidemiologist Damiano Abeni. Scholars have clearly shown that the pandemic has caused diagnostic delays in skin cancers.
Melanoma, what is its degree of infiltration?
We have long suspected this, but now we have the data to say it: the pandemic has not only directly caused deaths, but has also delayed many oncological diagnoses. The study tells us that the Breslow mean pre-pandemic was 0.88 mm, in the immediate post-pandemic in 2020 1.96 mm and in the first six months of 2021 1.4 mm. But what do these numbers mean? We could say that it is Breslow’s thickness of a melanoma is its degree of infiltrationsimplifying a lot, the higher this number, the more we are faced with a serious situation. And melanoma, to be clear, is a terrible malignant skin tumor.
After the pandemic, melanoma became more severe
The IDI’s MelanomaUnit had found that in the immediate post lockdown of 2020, Breslow’s thickness was 1.96mm, compared to 0.88mm in the pre-pandemic. Means that after the lockdown, dermatologists observed more severe melanomas and unfortunately, although it is slightly improving, the situation has by no means returned to pre-pandemic levels. Indeed, from January to June 2021 the average thickness of melanomas diagnosed in the IDI was 1.4mm, and even clinically the lesions were much worse: 13.7% of nodular melanomas compared to 4.2%. Furthermore, 1 in 10 melanoma was ulcerated compared to 5.9% previously.
The solution: resume screening as soon as possible
What does this data mean for us? They actually send out a really important message: screening must be resumed as soon as possible. Indeed, a very simple rule but really effective in the fight against cancer is that nothing is as important as diagnosing it early. On the other hand it is easy to imagine: the more we intervene in the early stages, the more likely we have a solution.
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Melanoma: The sooner it is discovered, the more likely it is to heal
The probability of surviving a tumor is closely linked to how early you discover you have it. This is also particularly true in the case of melanoma, against which early diagnosis remains the best weapon we have. THE melanomas discovered in the early stagesespecially if “in situ” they can be solved with simple surgery. But if cancer cells spread and metastasize, we are facing a totally different disease, aggressive and against which we still do not have satisfactory survival results, although they are improving compared to previous years.
Men make diagnoses later
The IDI data suggests that there is a generalized and severe delay in the diagnosis of melanoma and, based on what we have said so far, we can hypothesize that these delays in the future could turn into a worsening of the prognosis, in a disease more difficult to fight. This delay is observed mainly in men and less in women. For this reason, thecall for dermatological checks on time (and any form of cancer screening that is suggested to us based on our risk factors).
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