OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on the global and national health system, focusing it primarily against the COVID-19 infection. Early diagnosis of malignant diseases is the main oncological goal that guarantees better outcomes in treatment and better patient survival. We investigated the impact of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of new cases of melanoma, on the pathohistological features and TNM stage of melanoma, and compared them with the period before the pandemic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from the medical history of 126 patients with newly diagnosed melanoma in the period from March 1, 2019 until February 28, 2021 were retrospectively analyzed (69 patients from the period before the pandemic (03/01/2019 - 02/28/2020) and 57 patients during the pandemic (01/03/2020 - 28/02/2021). Collected data included age at diagnosis, gender and location of the primary/metastatic changes, histological subtype of melanoma and TNM characteristics of the disease, as well as the proportion of newly diagnosed patients presented on MDT for melanomas in the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy in the both periods. RESULTS: A significant decrease in the number of newly diagnosed melanoma patients was observed during the pandemic period (57 vs 69; 17.4%). No differences in demographic characteristics were observed between the two cohorts. The median age in the pre-pandemic period was 66 years (range 29-86), and in the pandemic period 68 years (range 31-88). The male gender was predominated (63.8% vs 68.4%) and there was no difference in the localization of skin lesion (p=0.36). The superficial-spreading subtype of melanoma was the most frequently detected in both periods (21.7% vs 29.8%). No difference was observed in the depth of the primary lesion (p=0.204), in the presence of ulceration (p=0.334), lymphovascular invasion (p=0.163), regression (p=0.074) and TILs (p=0.448). However, during the pandemic period, a statistically significantly higher number of newly diagnosed patients with locoregional disease were diagnosed, compared to the pre-pandemic period (p=0.024). There was no difference in the incidence of initially systemic disease (p=0.204) as well as in the number of patients presented to MDT in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period (p=0.171). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic was reflected on the number and characteristics of newly diagnosed melanomas at the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy in Split. During pandemic, a smaller number of newly diagnosed melanomas were reported, and among them, a higher proportion of patients with dissemination to regional lymph nodes was detected. Such findings are the result of a delay in diagnosis caused by postponing the examination by the patients themselves due to fear of a COVID-19 infection, as well as due to the disruption of routine dermatological and oncological care during the COVID-19 pandemic.