Survival of Patients Diagnosed With Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Were the survival rates of patients diagnosed with cancer in the US in 2020 and 2021 different than in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic?This population-based cohort study of more than 1 million US individuals found that patients diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 (compared with 2015 to 2019) had significant reductions in survival when diagnosed at both early and late stages, resulting in an estimated 17 390 more deaths (13.1%) within 1 year of diagnosis than expected.Individuals diagnosed with cancer in the US during 2020 and 2021 experienced worse survival during the first year after their diagnosis than those diagnosed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corresponding Author: Todd Burus, PhD, University of Kentucky, 760 Press Ave, Room 479, Lexington, KY 40508 (tburus@uky.edu).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.