[Surgical diathermy treatment of buccopharyngeal tumors].

Surgical diathermy excision was employed to treatment 138 cases of buccopharyngeal cancer, either as initial followed by irradiation therapy, or as complementary treatment to radiotherapy in unsuccessful cases. Results were favorable in 34 patients with tonsillar carcinoma and 38 cases of soft palate cancer, but the method was only moderately effective for recurrences in these regions. In 36 cases of tongue cancer, and 30 with cancer of the floor of the mouth, this therapeutic procedure was particularly effective for treating patients not responding to radium needle implantation.