Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many oral cancers were identified at stage (a) 0, (b) 1, (c) 2, (d) 3 and (e) 4 in each year since 2015; and how many and what proportion of those were identified by dentists.
The National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), part of NHS Digital, collects data on all cancers diagnosed in England. The following table shows the number of diagnoses of oral cancer in England between 2015 and 2020.
Year | Stage at diagnosis | Diagnoses of oral cancer | Number referred by dentists | Proportion referred by dentists |
2015 | 1 | 1,015 | 117 | 12% |
2015 | 2 | 580 | 49 | 8% |
2015 | 3 | 637 | 25 | 4% |
2015 | 4 | 3,104 | 176 | 6% |
2015 | Not staged | 418 | 12 | 3% |
2015 | Unstageable | 11 | 0 | 0% |
2016 | 1 | 1,027 | 111 | 11% |
2016 | 2 | 615 | 53 | 9% |
2016 | 3 | 554 | 27 | 5% |
2016 | 4 | 3,392 | 177 | 5% |
2016 | Not staged | 417 | 18 | 4% |
2016 | Unstageable | 7 | 0 | 0% |
2017 | 1 | 1,061 | 134 | 13% |
2017 | 2 | 613 | 58 | 9% |
2017 | 3 | 620 | 31 | 5% |
2017 | 4 | 3,429 | 214 | 6% |
2017 | Not staged | 383 | 20 | 5% |
2017 | Unstageable | 9 | 0 | 0% |
2018 | 1 | 1,060 | 132 | 12% |
2018 | 2 | 561 | 55 | 10% |
2018 | 3 | 864 | 41 | 5% |
2018 | 4 | 3,339 | 235 | 7% |
2018 | Not staged | 520 | 19 | 4% |
2018 | Unstageable | 9 | 0 | 0% |
2019 | 1 | 1,727 | 162 | 9% |
2019 | 2 | 1,063 | 88 | 8% |
2019 | 3 | 918 | 56 | 6% |
2019 | 4 | 1,941 | 270 | 14% |
2019 | Not staged | 1,091 | 63 | 6% |
2019 | Unstageable | 2 | 0 | 0% |
2020 | 1 | 1,782 | 131 | 7% |
2020 | 2 | 902 | 73 | 8% |
2020 | 3 | 929 | 49 | 5% |
2020 | 4 | 2,065 | 312 | 15% |
2020 | Not staged | 742 | 33 | 4% |
2020 | Unstageable | 2 | 0 | 0% |
Source: Cancer Registration Statistics, England 2020