WEDNESDAY, Nov. 20, 2024 -- There was an increase in the incidence of thicker melanomas among women older than 50 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a research letter published online Nov. 16 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Areeba Ahmed, M.D., from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues examined the influence of the pandemic on skin cancer incidence in a retrospective analysis of data from the Icelandic Cancer Registry. The sex- and age-standardized incidence rates per 100,000 person-years were calculated for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and melanoma from 2016 to 2022.

The researchers found that in the overall population, the incidence hierarchy was BBC > SCC > melanoma (78.50, 33.45, and 10.45 per 100,000 person-years, respectively). Across all cancer types, incidence rates for women consistently exceeded those for men; individuals aged 50 years and older had higher rates than younger populations. The relative incidence shifted to BCC > melanoma > SCC for women aged 50 years and younger (23.02, 5.39, and 3.59 per 100,000 person-years, respectively), while rates increased significantly for BCC and SCC, overtaking melanoma, in women older than 50 years (65.73, 33.30, and 6.88 per 100,000 person-years, respectively). During the pandemic years, melanoma incidence decreased significantly among women older than 50 years, followed by a rebound in 2021, accompanied by an increase in the incidence of melanoma >1 mm in thickness (annual percentage change, 8.61).

"While discussions about overdiagnosis in melanoma remain relevant, our findings suggest that reduced dermatology access may possibly lead to a downstream increase of thicker melanomas," the authors write.