OBJECTIVES: Within the last decade market authorizations for oral anticancer treatments (OATs) have increased. This analysis aimed at describing the current situation of OATs and their modalities of use.  METHODS: An analysis was performed from Oncology Analyzer™ (IMS Health, France), a physician survey database covering more than 10,000 cancer patients per year treated in both public and private institutions from multiple French regions. The database includes patient demographics, diagnosis and treatment patterns. Data was extracted for all types of cancers and described as number of patients treated by oral and intravenous (IV) anticancer drugs. Data was collected from October 2011 to September 2012. Analyses were split into different active anticancer treatment categories and excluded supportive care agents. RESULTS: 7,426 patients treated with oral and IV anticancer treatments in France were included in the analysis. The male/female ratio was 47%/53% and 58% of patients were aged over 60 years old. Patients receiving OATs were mainly diagnosed with a solid tumor (74%) such as breast cancer (34%), non-small cell lung cancer (8%) and colorectal cancer (7%). OATs represented 45% (54/119) of all molecules available (oral and IV) of which 44% (24/54) were cytotoxic chemotherapies, 28% (15/54) were targeted therapies, 22% (12/54) were hormonal-therapies and 6% (3/54) were immunotherapies. 32% of patients (2,410/7,426) received a regimen containing at least one OATs among them 78% received OATs only versus 18% received a combination of oral and IV drug.  61% of patients aged over 80 years received OATs, as compared to 26% of patients aged less than 60 years. CONCLUSIONS: The ACTOR study is the first analysis focused on the understanding of the pattern of use of OATs. One third of cancer patients in France are treated with OATs especially among the elderly.  Further research is needed to understand the OATs uptake.