Global statistics confirm poor survival rates in patients diagnosed with oral cancer; on average only around 50% surviving five years following treatment. This is largely attributed to patients presenting with advanced cancers in Stages 3 and 4 and stage at presentation is an important prognostic factor. Delays in recognizing oral cancer may happen throughout the patient’s cancer journey. The symposium will address the causes of delay, its impact on treatment outcomes and will present proposals to reduce diagnostic delays at all levels, during a patient’s cancer journey. Early diagnosis is a key factor in improving the outcomes of cancer patients. Social inequalities contribute to significant delays particularly due to health illiteracy and poor access to health systems. Mobile technology and e-health could help in consultations between primary care physicians/ dentists with specialists to rapidly transfer suspected cases of oral cancer. Diagnostic tools available for the detection of oral cancer and potentially malignant disorders have not been sufficiently researched in primary care. We will appraise their operating characteristics in secondary care. To further understand delays in cancer diagnosis and when assessing delays we need greater precision and transparency in both definitions and methods. These will be discussed in terms of the adaptation and application of the Aarhus checklist - a resource for early cancer-diagnosis research. A large number of oral cancer patients could be saved from premature death if they had timely access to health care systems, suspicious lesions are urgently referred to specialists and are promptly treated.