Cancer prevention not fully recovered from pandemic era declines, study says
Screening for breast and colon cancers has rebounded after decreasing or stalling during pandemic-era lockdowns, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
And, despite the pandemic, smoking rates have continued to go down, researchers said.
However, cervical cancer screening remains lower than pre-pandemic levels, and the HPV vaccination rate has not increased since the pandemic, researchers found.
Other major cancer risk factors like excess weight, physical inactivity and heavy alcohol use did not budge during the pandemic, marking a lack of progress, the study said.
"Cancer prevention and early detection are central to the American Cancer Society's goal to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer," lead researcher Dr. Priti Bandi, scientific director of cancer risk factors and screening surveillance research at the ACS, said in a news release.
"These latest findings are encouraging, mainly the reduction in smoking rates and screening for certain cancers, but it's clear urgent efforts are needed to address lagging cervical cancer prevention," Bandi added.
An estimated 40% of U.S. cancer cases are attributable to risk factors that people can change, researchers said.
These factors include smoking, excess weight, diet, exercise, exposure to ultraviolet radiation and infection with seven cancer-causing germs like HPV.
Cancer screening tests prevent thousands of cases and deaths every year, by detecting cancers in people with risk factors, researchers said.
For this new study, researchers analyzed data from four federal health surveys that track different cancer risk factors.
Results showed that:
Cigarette smoking declined to 11% in 2023, but menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products continued to make tobacco use more appealing to young people, Black individuals and bisexual folks.
Breast cancer screening exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with 80% of eligible women undergoing the procedure after a decline during the pandemic.
Colon cancer screening also increased in 2023, with 60% of eligible people being screened, including 54% undergoing colonoscopy and 11% stool testing.
Cervical cancer screening remained below pre-pandemic levels at 73%, continuing a decline dating to the early 2000s.
HPV vaccination rates among teens 13 to 17 years of age remained flat between 2021 and 2023 at 61%, reflecting pandemic-era disruptions.
Excess body weight in adults remains high, with 40% obese and 32% overweight.
Less than half of adults (48%) meet recommended physical activity levels, and more than a quarter (27%) reported no leisure-time exercise.
Heavy alcohol use remained stable at about 6% of the population, but was disproportionally higher among middle-aged people.
"Our report underscores the need to strengthen efforts to improve access and receipt of preventive services, including cancer screening, HPV vaccination, and counseling and treatment for tobacco dependence," senior researcher Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice president of surveillance and health equity science at the ACS, said in a news release.
However, ACS experts said these advances against cancer could be reversed if the Trump administration undermines staffing and funding of federal health agencies.
"These findings only further prove how investments in tobacco control have helped reduce the number of people falling prey to Big Tobacco's deadly products and practices," Lisa Lacasse, president of the ACS Cancer Action Network, said in a news release.
"Federal agencies have played a major role in helping to drive the successful reduction of smoking rates through critical tobacco control programs and funding," she continued. "We are deeply concerned that recent cuts to these important agencies will jeopardize continued progress to reduce tobacco utilization nationwide."
More information
The American Cancer Society has more on cancer risk assessment.
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
Atlanta gunman fired hundreds of rounds at CDC headquarters
Investigators released new details on the shooting targeting the Centers for Disease Control. Officials say Patrick Joseph White had expressed "discontent" with the Covid-19 vaccine and fired hundreds of rounds at CDC headquarters before he died by 12, 2025
Epoch Times
26 minutes ago
- Epoch Times
Chinese Authorities Mandating Blood Tests, Releasing Lab Mosquitoes to Fight Chikungunya Outbreak
As the chikungunya outbreak continues to spread in China, the prevention and control measures imposed by the Chinese communist regime have been causing increasing concerns among medical professionals and the Chinese public. Guangdong Province reported 1,387 new chikungunya cases in the past week (Aug. 3 to Aug. 9), according to a notice by the provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been no deaths from the virus reported so far, according to the Chinese agency. According to state media, as of July 29, the cumulative number of chikungunya cases in Foshan, Guangdong—where the first cases of the outbreak were reported on July 8—had exceeded 6,000. Because of the Chinese communist regime's record of censoring data it considers to be politically sensitive—as was seen with its cover-up of COVID-19 infections and related deaths in late 2019—the true number of known chikungunya fever infections could be higher. Chikungunya fever is a viral disease mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Its symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever. Patients usually experience fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rash. There is no specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya. Deaths from the disease are rare but do occur, especially among vulnerable populations such as those with underlying health conditions. Globally, as of July 2025, chikungunya fever has resulted in 90 deaths across 16 impacted countries and territories. The outbreak in China started in the hardest-hit city, Foshan. Confirmed cases have since been detected in more than 10 cities in Guangdong Province, according to the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Macau Health Bureau reported a case of chikungunya fever on July 18. Hong Kong health authorities reported a case on Aug. 2. Both cases were identified as children who exhibited symptoms after returning from a trip to Foshan, according to the local health authorities. The chikungunya virus has also spread to northern China. The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a prevention reminder on July 22, warning of occasional cases allegedly imported to Beijing from abroad. However, Beijing officials have not released any data. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 travel alert on Aug. 1 for China as the chikungunya virus outbreak continues its spread. Chinese doctors and residents told The Epoch Times that the chikungunya virus has spread to more places in China. A Chinese doctor whose work is related to disease prevention spoke to The Epoch Times on Aug. 10 on the condition of anonymity, out of safety concerns. The doctor said that chikungunya has spread to the megacity of Chongqing in southwest China, as well as Wuhan city in central China. A resident said in a video post on social media that chikungunya fever has spread to Hunan Province, adjacent to Guangdong, and that registration is required when purchasing any medications that treat fever. Foshan Municipal Market Supervision Bureau has introduced sales control of 47 medications for treating fever, rash, joint pain, and other symptoms caused by chikungunya in all retail pharmacies in the city, requiring registration for any sales, according to a notice it issued on Aug. 4. The Chinese regime has also imposed mandatory measures that have sparked fears of a return to the regime's draconian COVID-19 restrictions, such as mandatory self-paid quarantine and PCR testing. Local residents and medical professionals have especially expressed concerns about mandatory PCR testing of blood samples for the chikungunya virus, which the regime has been pushing in its public messaging. Mandatory Blood Draws Local residents in various locations around Guangdong Province posted on social media that mandatory blood tests are being implemented for PCR testing for chikungunya, which is different from the saliva tests for COVID-19. A patient said in a video post that after hospital staff drew three flasks of blood from him, he tested positive for chikungunya. He questioned why the hospital had to take three tubes for testing. The Chinese doctor, whose work is related to disease prevention, said that the chikungunya virus requires blood for PCR testing, as it is a blood-borne disease. 'Blood draws are also used for tertiary monitoring, and vaccine development requires the isolation of toxins from the blood, so a relatively large amount of blood needs to be drawn,' he said. A Guangzhou city resident posted on social media on Aug. 9 that Jiangnan Middle Street community office staff came to his home and demanded that the residents allow their blood to be drawn. He refused, and a group of staff repeatedly came back to demand it. Another resident in Guangdong revealed in a video post on Aug. 10 that his community office staff came at 10 p.m. to draw their blood for chikungunya PCR testing. Mainland Chinese media outlets reported that in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, community office officials in Guangdong's Zhanjiang City forcibly drew blood from two minors in the absence of their parents, sparking public outrage. 'Chinese government officials taking advantage of parents' absences to draw blood from children is a serious violation of medical ethics,' Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. Army microbiologist, told NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, on Aug. 10. Based on the reports of such harsh actions, Lin suspects that the Chinese regime 'is concealing information about whether other pathogens are also present in this outbreak along with Chikungunya, as mosquitoes in Guangdong carry more than one infectious disease.' Lin said that the Chinese Communist Party's public health department should publish a research report as soon as possible, especially during the peak of the outbreak. 'It's easy to catch a lot of mosquitoes for research to see if there were other viruses circulating at the same time, which can spare ordinary people the pain of forced quarantine and blood tests,' he said. Mosquito Lab Breeding Program Sparks Concerns Chinese state media reported in early August that China's largest mosquito breeding facility in Huangpu District of Guangzhou city, Wolbaki, was running at full capacity and releasing 5 million specially treated male mosquitoes per week, in the hopes of them mating with the wild female mosquito population to produce unviable eggs in a population control technique known as Wolbachia transinfection—where the reproductive compatibility of male mosquitoes is altered by an infection with the common naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium. Wolbaki's founder was the former director of the Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases, another mosquito breeding facility, at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, in partnership with Michigan State University, where Xi is a professor of microbiology, genetics, and immunology. 'When the [infected] male mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium mate with wild female mosquitoes that do not carry the bacteria, the eggs produced cannot develop normally due to cytoplasmic incompatibility and cannot hatch into mosquito larvae,' Gong Juntao, the head researcher at Guangdong's Wolbaki company that produces the mosquitoes, told Chinese media. However, the method has loopholes, as if infected lab females are not separated and instead released into the wild, they can continue to successfully breed and spread disease. The company claims to have developed an automated technology to efficiently separate male from female lab-bred mosquito pupae, with an error rate of less than 0.5 percent. But Lin said that given the huge number of mosquitoes released, an error rate of 0.5 percent 'means there are still about 25,000 female mosquitoes that can transmit diseases being released every week.' In May, Chinese media reported that China's biggest mosquito breeding facility in Huangpu District of Guangzhou, which it referred to as only the China mosquito research center, was running a pilot study to produce 30 million Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes—sustained on sheep's blood—to release every month as part of the authorities' disease-prevention efforts targeting the mosquito-borne dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses. Two months later, China saw its biggest chikungunya outbreak on record. China's efforts to curb the reproduction of wild mosquitoes through mass-produced lab males infected with Wolbachia 'has failed two rounds,' the Chinese doctor told The Epoch Times. He predicted that in southern and north-central China, the number of mosquitoes carrying the chikungunya virus will rapidly increase before winter.
Epoch Times
36 minutes ago
- Epoch Times
CCP Launches Chikungunya Virus Testing in Foshan, Sparking Fears of Lockdown
As the chikungunya fever outbreak has continued to spread in Guangdong Province, China, Chinese authorities have adopted similar control measures to those they adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering public fear of a return of citywide lockdowns. As of July 31, the total number of officially confirmed cases of chikungunya fever reported in Foshan, Guangdong Province, was more than 6,000, according to Chinese state media. The first case was reported on July 8. On Aug. 1, Foshan authorities reported 333 newly confirmed cases in one day. Chikungunya fever is a viral disease mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Its symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever. Patients usually experience fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rash. There is no specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya. Deaths from the disease are rare but do occur, especially among vulnerable populations such as those with underlying health conditions. Confirmed cases have been reported in more than 10 cities in Guangdong Province, according to the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. On July 31, the Department of Medical Emergency Response of the Chinese regime's National Health Commission issued an urgent nationwide notice for diagnosis and treatment plans for the chikungunya fever outbreak. In the notice, the central authorities said there is currently no chikungunya virus vaccine available in China. They said that 'quarantine measures must be taken' for suspected and confirmed cases. Meanwhile, local authorities in Foshan, which is hardest-hit by chikungunya fever, initiated a Level III public health emergency response on July 29. In China, there are four official response levels: Level I (extremely serious), Level II (serious), Level III (major), and Level IV (general). Residents in Foshan told local media that they had received an official notice that chikungunya virus PCR screening would be conducted as part of a three-day mass testing effort from July 29 to July 31. On July 30, the Shabian Village Residents Committee of Lecong Town in Foshan's Shunde district told local media that the whole town had received notice of mass PCR screening for the chikungunya virus for July 29 to July 31. Videos circulating on social media showed Guangdong residents lining up for PCR testing and epidemic prevention personnel fumigating Foshan to kill mosquitoes. Spreading Outside Guangdong The chikungunya outbreak had spread to Macau and Beijing a few days earlier, according to local health authorities. On July 29, health authorities in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, in southeast China posted an alert about chikungunya fever and dengue fever on their WeChat public account, requiring that 'people returning from Foshan must monitor their health for 14 days at home.' The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 travel alert on Aug. 1, advising people planning to visit China to 'practice enhanced precautions' due to a significant chikungunya virus outbreak in Foshan City. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concerns of another chikungunya virus epidemic. The WHO said it has noticed the same early warning signs as were seen before a major outbreak two decades ago that infected more than 5 million people. That epidemic started in Kenya and spread to countries primarily in the Indian Ocean region, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—and later, to parts of tropical and subtropical Europe and the Americas. 'We are calling for urgent action to prevent history from repeating itself,' Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez, medical officer at the WHO, told reporters on July 22. 'There is no particular treatment for chikungunya, so people need to avoid mosquito bites.' Chikungunya fever can spread rapidly. 'Based on the life habits of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, its vector, and the virus's activity in both humans and mosquitoes, it is estimated that in a community with a high Aedes aegypti population, a single infected person could transmit the virus to over 2,400 people through mosquito bites within 30 days,' Dr. Cheng Yuan-yu, attending physician at Shang-wen Clinic in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, who specializes in infectious diseases, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 2. If the epidemic continues to worsen, there is a high chance that countries will issue travel warnings, according to Cheng. '[However,] travel bans are unlikely, as this is a disease with a low mortality rate and a low severe case rate,' he said. 'Prevention measures primarily involve monitoring and tracking incoming travelers for symptoms, particularly body temperature.' Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. army microbiologist, shared a similar assessment, saying he does not think that travel bans will be necessary. He said 'there is no need' for the Chinese regime to impose quarantines 'because the virus isn't transmitted from person to person but rather through mosquitoes.' 'Local authorities can generally control the epidemic by implementing mosquito control campaigns and maintaining good hygiene,' Lin told The Epoch Times on Aug. 2. This outbreak in China is likely 'related to changes in the local mosquito population and their adaptability to the virus,' Lin said, noting that 'the Chinese government hasn't been able to produce a timely research report on this.' He said some people who are infected by chikungunya virus are at risk of long-term joint pain. As for the mass free testing being promised by the authorities, Lin said it's not really free. 'If you test positive and are sent to the hospital for quarantine, it will incur various costs,' he said. 'So generally speaking, ordinary people are still indirectly footing the bill, and pharmaceutical companies are making money out of it.' He added that spending public funds on PCR testing for Chikungunya is unnecessary because 'currently, there are no medications that can effectively treat the disease, so even if you tested positive, then what?' CCP's Mandatory Measures Sparking Fear Many Chinese citizens have been sharing their experiences of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chikungunya control measures on social media. Some fear that the draconian lockdown measures that the CCP employed during the three-year COVID-19 pandemic may come back. A Foshan resident infected with chikungunya virus posted a video on social media claiming to have not been allowed to leave the Longjiang Hospital in Shunde district after having a blood test. Another resident said in a video post that he has been in forced quarantine in a hospital for four days, with medical staff monitoring him for 24 hours a day. The video showed security guards at the quarantine site. Others commented on social media about Foshan's mass testing and 'long lines,' reminiscent of the long testing lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Do we need to be quarantined?' another post reads. 'Will they lock down the city?' 'No way!' another comment reads. 'Why do we have to wear masks every day again?' On July 29, CCP officials held a national video and telephone conference in Beijing on chikungunya fever prevention and control. Its control measures include a mosquito eradication campaign. A video on social media showed the Foshan government deploying a large number of armed police officers to 'exterminate mosquitoes.' A Chinese citizen commented on the video: 'The armed police has even been deployed. This feels a bit serious.' Another comment reads, 'Are they planning to lock down Foshan and Shunde?'
