Metastatic melanoma treatment with check point inhibitors in the COVID-19 era: experience from an Italian Skin Cancer Unit.

: Melanoma epidemiology has shown a constant increase in the last few decades even if mortality is low and only a small percentage of patients develop metastatic disease. For these patients, immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) significantly improves disease outcome with a median survival more than 2 years. The same drugs are used as adjuvant treatment in disease-free patients. Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is now a pandemic disease with lung manifestations, which can bring severe acute respiratory distress. The most important risk factors related to a higher death risk for COVID-19 pneumonia are elderly age and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, previous cancer).