Introduction: Approximately 3% of malignant tumors originate in the oral cavity. The majority are squamous cell carcinomas, and a small percentage, malignant tumors of the salivary glands, lymphoreticular diseases, bone tumors, melanomas, sarcomas, malignant odontogenic tumors and metastases of tumors from other locations. The prognosis of these pathologies depends on the size, infiltration, and site of the lesion, the presence or absence of metastatic spread, and to a certain degree the differentiation of the tumor. The prognosis of an oral cancer remains generally negative, with 5-year survival figures below 50%, producing high rates of mortality and morbidity. Objectives: To evaluate the influence of different variables on survival in an oral cancer population. Patients and methods: Two-hundred and sixteen patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma were studied over a period of five years, evaluating 42 variables grouped into five data sections: personal, lesion, site, stage, and risk factors. Results and conclusions: Average survival was 2088 days, with a standard deviation of 98 days. The factors most associated with mortality were: location in the gingiva (p=0.0590), in the trigone (p=0.0104), size (T3-T4) (p=0.0004) and lymph node involvement (N2a-N2b) (p=0.0035). Tobacco and alcohol, nowadays considered to be highly significant in carcinogenesis, had no considerable influence on survival.