Impacto de la pandemia COVID-19 en el carcinoma de células escamosas cutáneo: un estudio unicéntrico de los factores epidemiológicos, clínicos e histopatológicos

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected the early diagnosis of skincancer. Objective: To compare epidemiological, clinical and histopathological characteristics inpatients undergoing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) surgery before and after thebeginning 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 March2020), and (2) patients with SCC operated on in the previous year. Epidemiological, clinical andhistopathological variables, tumour stage and risk grade were collected.Results: 248 patients were included (127 undergoing surgery before the pandemic and 121after the pandemic). After the beginning of the pandemic, the percentage of high-risk SCCsignificantly increased from 35.3% to 46.2% (p = 0.011). However, no significant differences werefound in thickness, perineural invasion or metastases. Conclusions: Although there has not been a significant reduction in the number of SCC operatedon after the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in high-risk SCC. All this could leadto an increase in skin cancer mortality in the future.