A classic paper revisited--Polya and von Navratil (1902)

In 1902, Polya and von Navratil published a paper in German describing lymphatic drainage of buccal mucosa, alveolus, fauces, and lips. In addition, they discussed patterns of local tumor spread and metastasis to lymph nodes, on the basis of which they gave a rational plan for surgical treatment of buccal carcinoma with the aim of both cure and conservation of uninvolved tissues. Much of that paper was ignored in the English language literature and some of the contents have been misquoted. This has been to the great detriment of the surgical treatment of intraoral cancer in the English-speaking world, which has only recently accepted similar principles and practice to that described by Polya and von Navratil. This paper reviews their publication in an attempt to put their contribution into proper perspective.