Chemosurgical Treatment of Cancer of the Face

THE DEVELOPMENT of the chemosurgical method has been described,1as has the use of the method in the treatment of cancer in specific sites such as lip,2nose,3ear4and eyelid.5This article concerns the chemosurgical treatment of cancer of the face, exclusive of the nose, ear, eyelid and vermilion portion of the lips. TECHNIC The most important feature of the chemosurgical treatment of cancer is the microscopic control of excision afforded by the technic hereinafter described. As the term "chemosurgery" suggests, the tissues are chemically treated and then surgically excised. The chemical treatment serves to produce fixation of the tissues, so that specimens may be excised for systematic microscopic examination. To illustrate the technic there will be described the chemosurgical treatment of a simple squamous cell epithelioma of the temple (fig. 1A). The following steps were taken: 1. Dichloroacetic acid was applied to