U.S. sees uptick in breast cancer, pancreatic cancer diagnoses since COVID-19: study

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States has seen an uptick in diagnoses of advanced-stage breast cancer and pancreatic cancer since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The study appearing Tuesday in the Journal of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) compared incidence rates for 2021 with what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.

A previous study showed that new cancer diagnoses fell abruptly in early 2020, as did the volume of pathology reports, suggesting that many cancers were not being diagnosed in a timely manner, according to NIH.

The new study aims to determine whether these missed diagnoses were caught since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study found cancer incidence rates overall and for most specific cancers approached pre-pandemic levels, with no significant rebound to account for the 2020 decline.

The study also found increase in new diagnoses of advanced breast cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer in the United States in 2021.

The findings highlight the need for ongoing monitoring to understand the long-term impacts of the pandemic on cancer diagnoses and outcomes, said the researchers.