During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, countless Americans found themselves forgoing vital cancer screenings like colonoscopies, mammograms, and lung scans, as hospitals struggled under the strain of the health crisis.

Remarkably, a recent study published in the journal *Cancer* reveals that these delays aren't wreaking havoc on cancer statistics—as experts initially feared.

According to the analysis, cancer death rates continue to decline, and there have not been significant increases in late-stage cancer diagnoses, at least not yet. This comprehensive study is the largest to examine the pandemic's effects on cancer data in the U.S.

In 2020, a rise in late-stage cancer cases was noted as the pandemic unfolded, but by 2021, these alarming trends reverted to what they were before COVID-19. Recinda Sherman, the lead author of the study from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, expressed relief, stating, "So far, we haven’t seen an excess of late-stage diagnoses," which suggests that the pandemic is unlikely to correlate with increased cancer mortality.

Interestingly, while new cancer cases dipped significantly in 2020, the numbers rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The decline was consistent across various states, illustrating that it was human behavior and local hospital policies—rather than state-imposed restrictions—that influenced the patterns.

Although there was a slight increase in late-stage diagnoses for cervical and prostate cancers in 2021, the changes were not substantial. The findings are limited to data up until 2021, so the final impact of the pandemic on cancer statistics remains to be fully seen.

Sherman reassured readers, saying, "We didn’t see any notable shifts... It’s really unlikely that people with aggressive disease were not diagnosed during that time period." This research was a collaborative effort involving several institutions, including the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, and the American Cancer Society.