Changes in Cancer-Related Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

Few studies have examined cancer-related mortality overall and for select cancer types during the pandemic. Data on cancer-related mortality (any mention in death certificates, multiple causes of death-MCOD approach) was extracted from the CDC WONDER database. Changes in trends of age-standardized mortality rates through 1999-2021 were assessed by Joinpoint analysis. 1,379,643 cancer-related deaths were registered in 2020-2021, with cancer selected as the underlying cause in 88%. After two decades of decline, age-standardized cancer-related mortality increased from 2019 to 2021 for all cancers (annual percent change-APC 1.6%, 95%CI 0.6-2.6), especially for prostate (APC 5.1%, 95%CI 2.2-8.2) and hematologic (APC 4.8%, 95%CI 3.1-6.6) cancers. Sharp peaks in cancer-related deaths for many cancer sites were observed during pandemic waves in both 2020 and 2021, mostly accounted by deaths attributed to COVID-19 as the underlying cause. MCOD analyses are warranted to fully assess the impact of the pandemic on cancer-related mortality.