Epidemiology of oral and pharyngeal cancers in the United States: review of recent literature.

Recent literature on morbidity and mortality patterns, known risk factors, and related sociobehavioral characteristics of oral cancer have been examined. Despite variation in populations and methodologies, alcohol and tobacco were seen as the major independent etiologic agents; these effects were associated with age, sex, and religion-ethnicity. Other factors were suggested, but their correlation was less consistent: geographic location, race, socioeconomic status, nutrition, dental conditions, and concurrent diseases. Social and behavioral components may alter risk, stage of disease at diagnosis, treatment or survival from oral cancer. The impact of sociobehavioral elements on the reduction of the incidence of and the mortality from the disease is an important area needing further investigation.