[The three fundamental stages in the historical evolution of the surgical treatment of laryngeal cancer and the creators or authors of these stages].

This paper, written to honor the memory of one the greatest developers of ENT surgery, Professor R. Poch Viñals, presents a summary of what has been achieved in the surgical treatment of laryngeal carcinoma since the earlier attempts to eradicate this tumor up to the present time. These developments are written by someone who has lived and actively participated in the fight against this tumor from the time when really positive results were obtained up to nowadays. Currently, surgery still produces better results in the treatment of larynx malignancies than other therapeutic methods. However, we do not consider that the cancer cure results obtained with surgery are definitive. Therefore, physical and medical therapies should not be forgotten in our daily work since the latter--the only systemic treatment of cancer--is that in which we have our hopes.