The Papanicolaou test is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in the cervix or colon. Abnormal findings are often followed up by more sensitive diagnostic procedures and, if warranted, interventions that aim to prevent progression to cervical cancer. The test was independently invented in the 1920s by Georgios Papanikolaou and Aurel Babeș and named after Papanikolaou. A simplified version of the test was introduced by Anna Marion Hilliard in 1957.
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word pathology also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used in a narrower fashion to refer to processes and tests which fall within the contemporary medical field of "general pathology", an area which includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples. Idiomatically, "a pathology" may also refer to the predicted or actual progression of particular diseases, and the affix pathy is sometimes used to indicate a state of disease in cases of both physical ailment and psychological conditions. A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist.
Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or Anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination of organs and tissues. Over the last century, surgical pathology has evolved tremendously: from historical examination of whole bodies (autopsy) to a more modernized practice, centered on the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer to guide treatment decision-making in oncology. Its modern founder was the Italian scientist Giovan Battista Morgagni from Forlì.
Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou was a Greek physician who was a pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the "Pap smear".
Cytopathology is a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level. The discipline was founded by George Nicolas Papanicolaou in 1928. Cytopathology is generally used on samples of free cells or tissue fragments, in contrast to histopathology, which studies whole tissues. Cytopathology is frequently, less precisely, called "cytology", which means "the study of cells".
Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a diagnostic procedure used to investigate lumps or masses. In this technique, a thin, hollow needle is inserted into the mass for sampling of cells that, after being stained, are examined under a microscope (biopsy). The sampling and biopsy considered together are called fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) or fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). Fine-needle aspiration biopsies are very safe minor surgical procedures. Often, a major surgical biopsy can be avoided by performing a needle aspiration biopsy instead, eliminating the need for hospitalization. In 1981, the first fine-needle aspiration biopsy in the United States was done at Maimonides Medical Center. Today, this procedure is widely used in the diagnosis of cancer and inflammatory conditions.
Papanicolaou stain is a multichromatic (multicolored) cytological staining technique developed by George Papanicolaou in 1942. The Papanicolaou stain is one of the most widely used stains in cytology, where it is used to aid pathologists in making a diagnosis. Although most notable for its use in the detection of cervical cancer in the Pap test or Pap smear, it is also used to stain non-gynecological specimen preparations from a variety of bodily secretions and from small needle biopsies of organs and tissues. Papanicolaou published three formulations of this stain in 1942, 1954, and 1960.
Aurel A. Babeș was a Romanian scientist and one of the discoverers of the vaginal smear as screening test for cervical cancer.
The Armenian American Wellness Center, in Armenia, is a humanitarian project of the Armenian American Cultural Association (AACA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in Arlington, Virginia in February 1995. The project aims to promote the early and accurate detection of breast and cervical cancer, and to provide relatively low-cost primary health care services to women in Armenia.
The Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) at Thiruvananthapuram is a cancer care hospital and research centre. RCC was established in 1981 by the Government of Kerala and the Government of India. It is located in the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College campus in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the state of Kerala. It was established as an expansion of the Radiation Therapy / Radiotherapy department of Medical College Trivandrum. It is a tertiary care center for the managements of all types of cancers. The clinics are mainly on Haematology, Lymphoreticular, soft tissue, bone, head and neck, breast, CNS, gynaecological, urinary, chest, gastro, paediatric oncology and thyroid.
Diff-Quik is a commercial Romanowsky stain variant used to rapidly stain and differentiate a variety of pathology specimens. It is most frequently used for blood films and cytopathological smears, including fine needle aspirates. The Diff-Quik procedure is based on a modification of the Wright-Giemsa stain pioneered by Harleco in the 1970s, and has advantages over the routine Wright-Giemsa staining technique in that it reduces the 4-minute process into a much shorter operation and allows for selective increased eosinophilic or basophilic staining depending upon the time the smear is left in the staining solutions.
A. Sixten Franzén was a Swedish scientist, and a leading cancer researcher of the 1950s and 1960s. He pioneered fine-needle aspiration cytology, in which suspected cancer cells are removed through a very fine needle for examination under a microscope.
Cytotechnology is the microscopic interpretation of cells to detect cancer and other abnormalities. This includes the examination of samples collected from the uterine cervix, lung, gastrointestinal tract or body cavities.
John Kingsbury Frost was an American physician specializing in the field of cytopathology - the microscopic study of individual body cells to detect cancer and other diseases. The first area of the body to be studied in this way was the female genital tract, using the Pap smear invented by Georgios Papanikolaou. Frost and other physicians expanded the field to allow for cytopathologic evaluation of the lung, bladder, and many other body sites. Frost was best known as a teacher of cytopathology. He organized and directed a school of cytotechnology and created and led a postgraduate Institute to teach the techniques to physicians.
Leopold George Koss was an American physician, pathologist, and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been called "one of the founding fathers for the field of cytopathology".
Fred Waldorf Stewart was an American surgical pathologist who was chief of pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Irena Koprowska, née Grasberg was a Polish-born pathologist in the United States, and the first woman to be named a full professor at Hahnemann Medical College, now Drexel University College of Medicine.
Amanda Herbert is a British cytopathologist and histopathologist.
Valerie A. Fitzhugh is an American clinical pathologist and Associate Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School as well as an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is the Interim Chair of the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers and the Interim Chair at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as well. Fitzhugh is also the Chair and Medical Director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Clara Maass Medical Center. Fitzhugh specializes in bone and soft tissue pathology and cytopathology and has made the Pathology Power List by The Pathologist Magazine in 2016, 2018, and 2019. She is involved in educating pathology residents and she actively uses social media as a platform for education and for improving diversity in pathology and she also studies how effective social media is at enhancing accurate communication of science and medicine.
