George Papanicolaou was a
physician and researcher who was
associated with the Cornell University
school of medicine for forty-eight years.
While studying microscopic slides of cells
that had been cast off (exfoliated) in body
fluids of laboratory animals and humans,
he recognized the presence of abnormal
cancer cells. The discovery led to the
famous test that bears the first syllable of
his last name, the Pap test. He is
recognized by his colleagues as the father
of modern cytology.
George Nicholas Papanicolaou was
born on May 13, 1883, in Coumi, Greece, to
Nicholas (a physician) and Mary Critsutas
Papanicolaou. He received an M.D. degree
from the University of Athens in 1904 and
a Ph.D. from the University of Munich in
1910. He married Mary A. Mavroyeni on
September 15, 1910. His first position was
as a physiologist for an expedition of the
Oceanographic Institute of Monaco for one
year. In 1912, during the Balkan War, he
became an officer in the Greek army
medical corps. He came to the United
States in 1913, working initially as a
salesman, but soon securing work in his
field as an anatomy assistant at Cornell
University, where he eventually became a
full professor in 1924. He also served on
the pathology staff of New York Hospital
from 1913. Papanicolaou became a United
States citizen in 1927.
In the pathology lab at Cornell,
Papanicolaou began working with
microscope slides of vaginal secretions of
guinea pigs. He found that changes in forms
of the epithelial cells (the outer layer of
the skin or of an organ) correspond with
the animal's estrus or menstrual cycle.
Using the changes as a measuring device,
he was able to study sex hormones and
the menstrual cycles of other laboratory
animals.
In 1923 Papanicolaou studied vaginal
smears of women who had cervical cancer
and found cancer cells present. Writing in
the medical journal Growth in 1920, he
outlined his theory that a microscopic
smear of vaginal fluid could detect the
presence of cancer cells in the uterus. At
this time physicians relied on biopsy and
curettage to diagnose and treat cancer and
ignored the possibilities of a new test
based on Papanicolaou's research.
Papanicolaou himself paid little
attention to his research in this area for
the next decade. At the encouragement of
a colleague, Dr. Herbert F. Traut, and with
the support of Dean Joseph, C. Hinsey of
Cornell medical college, he later continued
his work in this field and was allowed to
devote full time to his research. In 1943 he
published conclusive findings that showed
smears of vaginal fluid could indicate
cervical and uterine cancer before symptoms appear. This time the medical
community took notice, and the "new
cancer diagnosis," the Pap smear test, won
acceptance and became a routine
screening technique.
During a Pap test, a scraping or smear
is taken from the woman's cervix (the
mouth of the uterus) or from the vagina,
then is stained and examined under the
microscope, where cells may appear
normal, cancerous, or suspicious. It is a
simple, painless, and effective means of
early cancer detection.
Papanicolaou soon won international
acclaim for his discovery. The American
Cancer Society (ACS) launched massive
education campaigns for the test, and Dr.
Charles Cameron, a Philadelphia surgeon
(who was director of the ACS), said that
this test was the most significant and
practical discovery in our time.
Papanicolaou spent much of his time
promoting the test and trained thousands
of students in the microscopic detection
techniques. Once the test had been
accepted, he began to apply the same
principle of exfoliate cytology to cancers
of the lung, stomach, and bladder.
At Cornell Papanicolaou founded the
Papanicolaou Research Center and worked
six and a half days a week peering at slides
and looking for malignant cells. He seldom
took a vacation. When associates advised
him to rest, he stated that the work was so
interesting and that there was so much to
be done. His wife worked as his research
assistant and driver.
Papanicolaou was a member of many
societies and won twelve prestigious
awards including the Borden award of the
Association of Medical Colleges in 1940,
the Lasker award of the Public Health
Association in 1950, and the honor medal
from the American Cancer Society in 1952.
The king of Greece gave him the medal of
the Cross of the Grand Commander award,
and his native town of Coumi renamed
their town square in his honor. He was the
author of four books and over one hundred
articles.
At the age of seventy-eight,
Papanicolaou ended his forty-eight year
association with Cornell and took over the
Papanicolaou Cancer Institute in Miami. He
maintained a busy schedule and was
planning for the further expansion of the
institute when he suffered a heart attack
and died on February 19, 1962. He was
buried in Clinton, New Jersey.
In 1983, the hundredth anniversary
of Papanicolaou's birth, several articles
appeared in scientific journals honoring
him and his persistent spirit of scientific
discovery. In December, 1992, the Journal
of the Florida Medical Association issued a
thirty year commemorative of his death,
which states that because of his
persistence, there has been a seventypercent
decrease in cervical and uterine
cancer. His techniques are also being
applied to other organs and systems in the
use of fine needle aspiration.
(From World Health Website)
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