Oral Cancer

An estimated 59,660 Americans were diagnosed with oral cancer in 2025, and about 12,770 people lost their lives to this disease. This largely preventable type of cancer affects the mouth and/or pharynx. While new cases of oral cancer have increased only slightly since 2000, 5-year survival has increased more modestly from the mid-1970s until the latest data (2018–2022) from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER).

The National Cancer Institute's SEER Program has been an important source of information on cancer in the United States since the mid–1970s. Click on the links below for details about oral cancer rates from the most recent data (2018–2022)