On Sept. 24, 2024, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported results of a study that showed cancer incidence trends in 2021 largely returned to what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there was little evidence of a rebound in incidence that would account for the decline in diagnoses in 2020, when screening and other medical care was disrupted. One exception was breast cancer, where the researchers did see an uptick in diagnoses of advanced-stage disease in 2021.

The researchers concluded that 2021 was a transition year that was still affected by new variants and new waves of COVID-19 cases, which continued to impact medical care. The study appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.