The Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer of the Tonsil 1

AS noted in our records for the years 1915 to 1935, cancer of the tonsil had an incidence of approximately 1 per cent of all cancer and constituted 10 per cent of all intra-oral cancers. Of the cases noted, 91 per cent were in males, the period of greatest prevalence being in the fifth and sixth decade in which approximately two-thirds of the patients were observed (Table I). The youngest and oldest cases were in men of 28 and 85 years, respectively. A recent case so diagnosed pathologically was noted In a boy of 12 years, but as this case is controversial from the clinical angle, it will not be included here. Similar studies by Bervan, Coutard, Duffy, Schall and others confirming these findings are commended to the reader's attention. The etiology, as in cancer in general, seems best attributed to an intrinsic hereditary or acquired predisposition, in addition to a chronic irritation acting as a localizing extrinsic factor. Bad oral hygiene, syphilis, excessive use of tobacco, and so forth, undoubtedly p...