Every year, an immeasurable amount of women around the world engage in one of the most effective weapons they have for the fight against cervical cancer. That weapon is a Pap smear examination – a screening that detects cervical cancer in its most early stages. Since World War II , the Pap smear examination has become the most widely used cancer screening method in the world and the test that itself can also detect pre-cancerous cells in the cervix making it an invaluable tool for cervical cancer prevention. Thousands of women around the world owe their life to the man who invented the Pap smear – Greek pioneer Georgios Papanikolaou.
The Pap smear was named after its inventor Georgios Nicholas Papanikolaou. Born in Kymi, Greece on May 13, 1883, George Papanikolaou had three siblings. His father, Nicholas, was a doctor. His mother, Maria, loved music and literature.
As a young man, Dr Papanikolaou went to the University of Athens in 1898 and majored in Music and Humanities. He then followed in his father’s footsteps and attended medical school. After graduating with a perfect “A” average in 1904, Dr. Papanikolaou began his medical career in the Greek military as Assistant Surgeon.
Dr. Papanikolaou left the military in 1906 and, after a brief stint caring for patients at a leper colony in Greece, he began postgraduate study at the Zoological Institute in Munich, where he received a Ph.D. In 1914, Dr. Papanikolaou secured a position in the Anatomy Department at the Cornell University Medical School in New York. In 1920, he began his study of vaginal cytology (the study of the microscopic appearance of cells).
Over time, Dr. Papanikolaou became very familiar with the normal cytological changes that occur in cervical cells. This familiarity allowed him to make what he called one of the most thrilling experiences of his scientific career; his first discovery of cancer cells in a smear from of the uterine cervix.
Dr Papanikolaou knew malignant cancer cells could be viewed under a microscope after reading a book by Walter Hayle Walshe in 1843 regarding lung diseases. Papanikolaou began testing the vaginal fluid of guinea pigs before he tested human women. In 1923, he explained to an audience of physicians that smearing the vaginal fluid on a glass slide would enable the cells from the female reproductive system to be analysed. When he began testing actual women, by chance one of the women tested positive for cervical cancer. Discovering the cervical cancer cells with the use of his procedure was a thrill for Papanikolaou and it turned out to be a medical breakthrough.
In 1928, Dr. Papanikolaou first presented his findings that uterine cancer could be diagnosed by means of vaginal smear in the paper, New Cancer Diagnosis.
Over a decade passed before the collaboration between Dr Herbert Traut, a gynaecologist and pathologist, and Dr Papanikolaou that would validate and scientifically prove the potential of the vaginal smear for the diagnosis of Cervical Cancer. Their collaboration involved the taking regular vaginal smears of all women patients at Cornell’s Hospital. The study provided the basis of the book, Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear.
In 1943, when Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear was published, Dr. Papanikolaou’s work quickly became widely known and accepted. The book describes the process of preparing a cervical smear and the cytologic changes that are seen as cervical cells change from normal, to pre-cancerous, to cancer.
Papanikolaou died in 1962 just before the opening of the Papanikolaou Cancer Research Institute at Miami University. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1950.
2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of this influential cytologist. On the 130th anniversary of the birth and 50 years since the death of the outstanding Greek scientist George Papanikolaou, the Odessa branch of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture is holding a series of activities and events, in collaboration with the municipality of Odessa, the city’s Department of Health, and the Odessa National Medical University. The events include a flatbed photo exhibition, titled The Great Giver of Life – George Papanikolaou (1883-1962), featuring photographs, letters and other memorabilia from the life and work of the scientist who changed women’s lives, along with the screening of a 2008 documentary, lectures, master classes and roundtable discussions.
Today, Pap smears are considered one of the most successful and effective forms of cancer screening. The Pap smear is used to check changes in the cervix – the neck of the womb – at the top of the vagina. It is a screening tool to find early warning signs that cancer might develop in the future. The Pap smear is a simple procedure. Cells are collected from the cervix and placed (smeared) onto a slide. The slide is sent to a laboratory where the cells are tested for anything unusual. If abnormal changes are found at screening, further tests will be done to see if treatment is needed. The Pap smear is not for diagnosing cancer, but rather, for finding early changes which might become cancer.
All women with a cervix who have ever had sex at some time in their life are at risk of cervical cancer. About half the new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each year are in women over 50 years of age. More women over 50 years of age die from cervical cancer because their cancer is diagnosed later when treatment is more difficult. Regular Pap smears every two years can help prevent up to 90 per cent of the most common type of cervical cancer.