SURGERY was the only therapy for cancer of the base of the tongue in the last decades of the 19th century. The poor techniques applied at that time resulted in few successes and high mortality.1-2
With the discovery of x-ray treatment a new kind of oncologic therapy appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.3 The simplicity and apparent innocuousness of radiotherapy, contrasting with the aggressiveness and high mortality of surgery, gave new hopes for the survival and improvement of these patients. Unfortunately, recent statistical data presented by radiotherapists did not confirm the initial optimism.4-10 This fact and great development achieved by surgery in the last decades of this century, again changed the lingual cancer treatment. Many papers have been presented lately by surgeons, including us, on this subject.11-22
We have studied and standardized a new surgical technique for en bloc resection of tumors of the