Incidence of local-stage cancers decreased from 2019 to 2022: Study

From 2019 to 2020, the incidence of local-stage disease decreased significantly for 19 of 22 cancer types compared with stable year-over-year changes pre-COVID-19, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in the International Journal of Cancer.

Elizabeth J. Schafer, M.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to calculate delay- and age-adjusted incidence rates and rate ratios comparing changes in year-over-year incidence rates from 2016 to 2020 for 22 cancer types using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 22-registry database.

The researchers found that for 19 of the 22 cancer types, the incidence of local-stage disease decreased significantly from 2019 to 2020, ranging from 4 to 18 percent for urinary bladder cancer and colorectal and laryngeal cancers, respectively, and deviating from the stable year-over-year changes seen pre-COVID-19.

During the corresponding period, incidence also declined for 16 and six cancer types for regional-stage and distant-stage disease, respectively. In historically marginalized populations, the decline in local-stage incidence for screening-detectable cancers was generally greater. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decline in cancer incidence rates occurred mainly for local- and regional-stage diseases across racial and ethnic groups.

"Cancer incidence rates during 2020 deviated from prepandemic patterns, likely due to the suspension of health care for both cancer and noncancer related medical care," Schafer said in a statement. "These findings have given us more evidence of the impact of the pandemic on cancer incidence rates by stage at diagnosis and race and ethnicity."