Though signal advances have been made recently in many surgical problems, the treatment of cancer of the head and neck has, it would seem, neither received the attention nor kept the pace of progress in other fields. These unhappy cases are too often regarded as specters at the clinic. The operative treatment is hampered by tradition and conventionality, and the tragic ending of so large a proportion of these cases has held back lay and even professional confidence. In this paper it is intended to present an outline sketch of the conclusions regarding the surgical treatment of cancer of the head and neck in the curable stage. The etiology, the diagnosis and the pathology will not be considered. It is generally admitted that cancer is primarily a local disease. Each case, then, is presumably at some period curable by complete excision. The immediate extension from the primary focus is principally