title: Head and neck cancer and its treatment: historical review.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Guy's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McGurk
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Goodger
mesh_terms: D016371:Cranial Irradiation / Q000266:history; D003399:Craniotomy / Q000266:history*; D004534:Egypt; D005060:Europe; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D019647:Oral Surgical Procedures / Q000266:history*; D012384:Rome; D014481:United States