Pap test (cervical cytology)
Prueba de Papanicolaou (citología cervical)
- Date
- 1928-1943 · confidence high
- Place
- Cornell Medical College, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Georgios Papanikolaou (Georgios Papanicolaou)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A method for detecting cervical cancer from cells in a smear, stained with the Papanicolaou stain. It markedly reduced mortality from cervical cancer.
Papanicolaou presented the finding in 1928 and developed it with Herbert Traut (1943). The Romanian Aurel Babeș published a similar method in 1927-1928, hence priority is disputed. Papanikolaou was born in Kymi (Greece).
What it led to
- population screening programmes for cervical cancer
- diagnostic cytology as a specialty