In a new study, American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers discovered deaths with cancer as the underlying or primary cause decreased in the United States during the first year of the pandemic in 2020 compared to 2019, continuing the decreasing trend from prior years. In contrast, mortality rates with cancer as a contributing cause were higher in 2020 compared to 2019, reversing the decreasing trend from prior years. The study was published in the Journal Oncology Practice (JOP).
For the study, ACS scientists looked at data from the Underlying and Multiple Cause of Death database for the years 2015 through 2020, which is part of the CDC’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiological Research (WONDER) and produced by the National Center for Health Statistics. Researchers identified cancer-related deaths with invasive cancer listed as the underlying or contributing cause of death. Age-standardized cancer-related mortality rates for 2020 were compared to those for 2015-2019 and stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, urban or rural residence, and place of death.
ACS scientists projected 19,703 more deaths with cancer as a contributing cause in 2020 than expected based on historical trends. Mirroring pandemic peaks, the monthly death rates with cancer as a contributing cause first increased in April 2020 (RR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.02–1.04), subsequently declined in May and June 2020, then increased again each month from July through December 2020 compared to 2019, with the highest rate ratio in December (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.06–1.08).
