Survival statistics for oral cancer
Survival statistics for oral cancer are very general estimates and must be interpreted very carefully. Because these statistics are based on the experience of groups of people, they cannot be used to predict a particular person’s chances of survival.
There are many different ways to measure and report cancer survival statistics. Your doctor can explain the statistics for oral cancer and what they mean to you.
Net survival
Net survival represents the probability (chance) of surviving cancer in the absence of other causes of death. It is used to give an estimate of the percentage of people who will survive cancer.
In Canada, 5-year net survival statistics for oral cancer are included in a group called “head and neck cancers.” This category includes similar cancers that are grouped and reported together. So the 5-year net survival for “head and neck cancers” doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual survival for the individual cancers within the group.
The 5-year net survival for head and neck cancers is 64%. This means that, on average, people diagnosed with a cancer in this group are 64% as likely to live at least 5 years after their diagnosis as people in the general population.
Questions about survival
Talk to your doctor about your prognosis. A prognosis depends on many factors, including:
- your health history
- the type of cancer
- the stage
- certain aspects of the cancer
- the treatments chosen
- how the cancer responds to treatment
Only a doctor familiar with these factors can put all of this information together with survival statistics to arrive at a prognosis.
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