Papanicolaou Smear

Excerpt

In the 1940s, cervical cancer was a leading cause of death for women of childbearing age in the United States. Dr George Papanicolaou, a Greek immigrant, initially began his academic career studying the reproductive cycles of guinea pigs. After moving to the United States, he held a position in the anatomy department at Cornell University. He changed his focus of study to human physiology and began collaborating with gynecological pathologist Dr Herbert Traut. While working together at Cornell University, they published Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Pap Smear in 1943. This significant work detailed how normal and abnormal vaginal and cervical cells could be observed under a microscope and how they should be classified. Shortly thereafter, the Pap smear became the gold standard in cervical cancer screening and remains the primary screening tool for cervical cancer today.