Head and neck cancer and its treatment: historical review.

Head and neck cancer has been known to physicians since antiquity, but until relatively recently any material advance was limited by the lack of anaesthesia. The factors and people that helped to develop the subject of head and neck surgery have been traced through history, and this paper provides a broad historical perspective with which to compare the current standard of management for head and neck cancer. Copyright 2000 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.