Oral cancer - survival statistics for England and Wales

This page presents oral cancer survival statistics including by stage at diagnosis, trends in cancer survival, by age, and by deprivation group.

Many patients who are treated for oral cancer have to cope with the devastating consequences of their treatment. 1 These may affect the patient’s appearance and how they function. For example, eating, drinking and speaking may become difficult and these can lead to other problems such as depression and nutritional deficiency. Quality of life issues are therefore especially important for this group of patients.

The latest cancer survival statistics available are for patients diagnosed in the period 2005-2009. We are currently working to update all the survival pages on this site. Find out why more up to date statistics are not yet available.

Oral cancer survival by stage at diagnosis
Oral cancer survival trends over time

Oral cancer survival by age
Oral cancer survival by deprivation group

Many oral cancers present at a late stage as illustrated in Table 3.1 using data from the south and west of England for patients diagnosed in 1996-2000. 2 Patients with early disease can be cured, but for those with metastatic disease, the aim is to contain the disease and maximise quality of life. The survival statistics shown here, unless otherwise stated, include all types of cases of the disease, early and late, and should be used as a general guide only.

Table 3.1: Stage and two-year crude survival, cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, South and West of England, 1996-2000

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Five-year survival rates for cancers of the lip, oral cavity, tongue, oropharynx and hypopharynx are shown in Figure 3.1 for men and women diagnosed in1991-95 and 1996-99. 3 The best outcome was for cancer of the lip with over 90% of patients surviving five years and most of these will be cured. The five year rates for lip cancer improved slightly for both men and women during the 1990s. The lowest survival was for hypopharyngeal tumours. In general, prognosis worsens with increasing inaccessibility of the tumour. For cancers of both the tongue and oral cavity, women had higher survival rates than men. In the case of tongue cancer there was an 11% difference (55 v 44%) for patients diagnosed in 1996-99, for cancers of the oral cavity it was 8% (55 v 48%) for 1996-99 patients.

Figure 3.1: Comparison of age-standardised 5 year relative survival rates for patients diagnosed in 1991-1995 and 1996-1999, England and Wales

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As for most cancers, survival is better for younger than older patients as shown in Figure 3.2 for cancers of the oral cavity, oropharynx and tongue.

Figure 3.2: Five-year relative survival by age, cancers of the oral cavity, oropharynx and tongue, 1996-1999 patients England and Wales

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When the five year survival rates for 1986-90 patients were analysed by deprivation category, there were significant differences between the most affluent and most deprived groups for cancers of the tongue, oropharynx and oral cavity ( Table 3.2 ). 4

After the improvement in survival over time was analysed by deprivation group, it became clear that most of the improvement had occurred in the affluent group. Five-year relative oral cancer survival rates increased from 43 to 55% between 1971-75 and 1986-90 for the affluent patients compared with a very small increase over the same time period of 42 to 44% for the most deprived patients. 4

Table 3.2: Comparison of survival in affluent and deprived patients, 1986-90, England and Wales