Oral Cancer Statistics

•  Twenty-five percent of all oral cancer victims are non-smokers, non-drinkers and have no other lifestyle risk factors.¹

• In the U.S., one person dies from oral cancer every hour.⁴ In Canada, three people die from oral cancer every day.⁵ In India, it is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths.⁶

• Research from Johns Hopkins Hospital and other medical institutions suggests that the human papillomavirus (HPV) 16, a common sexually transmitted virus, is associated with oral cancers located in the upper throat and back of the tongue.⁷

• According to the American Cancer Society, oral cancer affects more than 35,000 people in the U.S. each year.³

• Oral cancer causes 7,500 deaths each year and only slightly more than half of oral cancer patients survive five years.³

• Seventy percent of oral cancer cases are diagnosed at a late stage, which partially accounts for the poor five-year survival rate of approximately 60 percent.³

• The five-year survival rate for patients who have localized disease at diagnosis is 82 percent compared with only 28 percent for patients whose disease has metastasized.^3,8

• The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results program (SEER) and the Oral Cancer Foundation report that approximately 100 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with oral cancer every day.^9,10

• Oral cancer is twice as prevalent in men as it is in women.¹¹