Advanced cancers returned to prepandemic levels, according to a reassuring report

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Advanced cancers returned to prepandemic levels, according to a reassuring report

2025-04-22 05:27 Last Updated At：05:51

Many Americans were forced to postpone cancer screenings — colonoscopies, mammograms and lung scans — for several months in 2020 as COVID-19 overwhelmed doctors and hospitals.

But that delay in screening isn't making a huge impact on cancer statistics, at least none that can be seen yet by experts who track the data.

Cancer death rates continue to decline, and there weren't huge shifts in late diagnoses, according to a new report published Monday in the journal Cancer. It's the broadest-yet analysis of the pandemic’s effect on U.S. cancer data.

In 2020, as the pandemic began, a greater share of U.S. cancers were caught at later stages, when they're harder to treat. But in 2021, these worrisome diagnoses returned to prepandemic levels for most types of cancer.

“It is very reassuring,” said lead author Recinda Sherman of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. “So far, we haven’t seen an excess of late-stage diagnoses," which makes it unlikely that there will be higher cancer death rates tied to the pandemic.

Similarly, the number of new cancer cases dropped in 2020, but then returned to prepandemic levels by 2021. The size of the 2020 decline in new cancers diagnosed was similar across states, despite variations in COVID-19 policy restrictions. The researchers note that human behavior and local hospital policies played more of a role than state policy restrictions.

Late-stage diagnoses of cervical cancer and prostate cancer did increase in 2021, but the shifts weren't large. The data analysis goes only through 2021, so it’s not the final word.

“We didn't see any notable shifts,” Sherman said. “So it’s really unlikely that people with aggressive disease were not diagnosed during that time period.”

The report was produced by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The threat of a war with India empties a scenic Pakistani valley of summer tourists

2025-05-02 13:35 Last Updated At：13:42

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Neelum Valley in northern Pakistan attracts some 300,000 tourists each summer who marvel at its natural beauty. But the threat of war with nearby India has emptied its hotels.

Gunmen last week killed 26 people in the Indian resort town of Pahalgam, fueling tensions between the nuclear-armed nations after India blamed Pakistan for the attack, a charge Pakistan denies.

Neelum Valley is less than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir, making it vulnerable to any military activity.

Hotel owner Rafaqat Hussain said Thursday the crisis has hit the tourism industry hard. “Most tourists have left and returned to their cities because there is a risk of war."

Authorities in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir temporarily shuttered dozens of tourist resorts following the attack as a precaution.

No such order has come from Pakistani authorities. Bazaars in the Pakistani border town of Chakothi were open for business, although people were concerned.

“First of all, our prayer is for peace, as war always affects civilians first,” shop owner Bashir Mughal told The Associated Press, saying he would fight alongside the army in the event of conflict.

Pakistan used to help residents to build bunkers near their homes during periods of intense cross-border firing. But the population has grown and some homes lack shelters. “Local casualties could be devastating if war breaks out,” Mughal warned.

Saiqa Naseer, also from Chakothi, shuddered at the childhood memories of frequent firing across the border. “Now, as a mother, I find myself facing the same fears,” she said.

She remembered Indian shells striking the picturesque valley when the two countries came close to war in 2019. She has a bunker at her home.

“If war comes, we will stay here. We won’t run away,” she said.