1928

George Papanicolaou, Cornell cytologist, published “New Cancer Diagnosis” introducing Pap smear as diagnostic tool for cervical cancer, but it was neither accurate nor esp. sensitive. It was only in 1952, that he convinced NCI to launch the largest clinical trial of secondary prevention in history of cancer using his smearing technique to detect preinvasive cancers and precancerous changes, with respect to which it was totally successful (Mukherjee, 286-290): “The Pap smear had, in effect, pushed the clock of cancer detection forward by nearly two decades, and changed the spectrum of cervical cancer from predominantly incurable to predominantly curable” (290).