Photo Credit: Andrei Orlov

Cancer trends in the United States improved in 2021, but continued to be lower than expected, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Todd Burus, MAS, and colleagues examined cancer incidence trends using the SEER-22 Registries Database to examine observed versus expected cancer rate trends for January 2020 to December 2021. In 2020 and 2021, the SEER-22 registries reported 1.57 million cancer cases (50.6% among men and 57.6% in patients aged ≥65). All sites cancer incidence rates were 9.4%, 2.7%, and 6.0% lower than expected in 2020, 2021, and both years combined. For four screening-detected cancers, in 2021, there was a significant recovery for breast cancer in women only, while significant reductions persisted for lung cancer and cervical cancer, especially for early stage at diagnosis. Among women, persons aged younger than 65, and persons of non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander race and ethnicity, rates of all-sites cancer incidence returned to pre-pandemic trends.