Abstract
Historically, surgery has been at the forefront of the fight against malignant tumors. Already in the Egyptian papyrosech from 1700 BC. destruction of breast cancer by cautery is described.
John Hunter (1728 - 1793), who is considered the father of modern surgery, described many principles of oncosurgery and pointed out, for example, the need for total tumor removal along with the lymphatic basin. One of the first oncosurgeons is Theodor Billroth of Vienna, who is known for performing partial gastric resection for cancer in 1881, but in 1873 he described the first total laryngectomy.
Only in 1896 Roentgen discovered the "X" rays laid the foundations of radiation oncology. Surgeon Jiří Diviš from Prague is a priority in performing the first lung resection for metastasis in 1927.
The era of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy was not begun until the early forties of the last century. The term 'surgical oncology' began to be used in the 1960s, but not to distinguish general surgeons from oncologists but surgeons from oncologists.
While internal and radiation oncology quickly formed as separate specialties, surgical oncology was difficult to separate from general surgery. Experienced general surgeons have performed and are still performing most oncosurgical operations and subspecialization, surgical oncology has been limited to large, mostly university hospitals.