Breast cancer mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Several lines of evidence suggest that breast cancer screening and treatment may have been compromised during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER database, we estimated the age-adjusted mortality rates for female breast cancer between 2018 and 2023. We found that the age-adjusted death rate for breast cancer decreased gradually from 2018 to 2019 and 2020. This downward trend reversed in 2021, with an increase in breast cancer mortality, which then declined further in 2022 and 2023. These findings indicate that breast cancer mortality may have increased slightly in 2021, possibly as a result of limited access to screening and timely treatment during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the age-adjusted mortality rate continued to decline in the following two years.