1883-1962 · Cytopathologist
George N. Papanicolaou
Cornell University
Greek-born biologist and cytopathologist (born in Kymi) who emigrated to New York in 1913 and worked at Cornell University. He saw cancer cells in a human vaginal specimen in 1928 and, with Herbert Traut, published on vaginal smears in carcinoma of the uterus in 1941.
Milestones
Sources
van Gijn J, Gijselhart JP. [Papanicolaou and the cervical smear]. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2012;156(40):A4965.
Swailes AL, Hossler CE, Kesterson JP. Pathway to the Papanicolaou smear: The development of cervical cytology in twentieth-century America and implications in the present day. Gynecol Oncol. 2019;154(1):3-7.