The heightened risk can last 5-10 years, sometimes longer. Until researchers learn more about this phenomenon, second primary tumors will remain a specter faced by all oral cancer patients. Additionally, oral cancer, like many diseases, continues to take a disproportionate toll on minorities. Incidence peaks in African Americans 10 years earlier than in the general population, in whom the disease is usually diagnosed between ages 65-74. African American males suffer the highest incidence and lowest survival rates of any group.
Oral cancer is the fourth most common cancer among African American men in the United States.