The Oral Cancer Foundation

During Oral Cancer Awareness Month, we direct our focus to the causes for hope for individuals with oral cancer.

While the incidence of oral cancer is comparatively low, with these cancers accounting for about 3 percent of all cancers diagnosed each year in the United States, the death rate among patients with oral cancer is, by contrast, quite high—mainly as a result of delayed diagnosis. Only approximately 28 percent of oral and oropharyngeal cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, when the prognosis and 5-year survival rate (at 86%) are good. Heightened screening and efforts to promote earlier diagnosis are clearly necessary to provide increased hope for these patients.

The Oral Cancer Foundation is dedicated to reducing the incidence of oral  and oral pharyngeal cancer and supporting patients who have these diseases. The Bruce Paltrow fund was added to the OCF in 2008, providing the Foundation with important fund-raising and public outreach efforts. Director Bruce Paltrow lost his battle with oral cancer in 2002; in 2018, his widow, actress Blythe Danner, was also diagnosed with oral cancer, and has been in remission since 2022.

Several celebrities are among the champions of the Bruce Paltrow Fund. Notable A-listers that have helped the Fund’s advocacy efforts are Jack Klugman, Gwyneth Paltrow,  Michael Douglas, Colleen Zenk, and Stanley Tucci.

The goals of the Bruce Paltrow Fund reflect the humanitarian nature of the late Bruce Paltrow, and in collaboration with the OCF provide high-profile testimony to the importance of increased research, advocacy, treatment, and screening.

Click here to find out more.

Click here to learn more about oral and oropharyngeal cancer statistics.