Lady Andromache (Mary) Papanicolaou: The Soul of Gynecological Cytopathology

Chantziantoniou, Nikolaos

doi:10.1016/j.jasc.2014.08.004

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Under the inaugural editorship of Dr. George L. Wied, Acta Cytologica started out as a forum to converge invited discussions of theoretical and practical problems in the flourishing discipline of diagnostic cytopathology [1]. Now, 60 years on, this commemorative diamond jubilee issue celebrates a journey through the historical and scientific events that ultimately transcended into contemporary practice [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. …”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Two Fortuitous Papers in 1917 That Conceived Diagnostic Cytopathology

Chantziantoniou

2017

Acta Cytologica

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confidence: 99%

“…In the following 44 years at Cornell, the husband-and-wife team went on to establish not only gynecological cytopathology and the Pap test, but also the scientific foundations of an entire diagnostic medical profession [2,3,4,8]. …”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Fortuitous Papers in 1917 That Conceived Diagnostic Cytopathology

Chantziantoniou

2017

Acta Cytologica

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“…Shortly after his arrival at Cornell, Papanicolaou was tasked to extend his previous PhD research work on sex determination and chromosome structure in Daphnia fleas, to guinea pigs. In November 1914, Cornell allowed Mrs. Andromache Papanicolaou to work alongside her husband as a voluntary technical assistant [2,8,10,11] .…”

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“…Astonishingly, Papanicolaou approached his wife, Andromache, and she consented to his taking vaginal fluid samples from her daily using the same collection technique. This exercise commenced in 1920 and ended 21 years later when Papanicolaou formally reported the refined 5-dye Pap staining method in 1942 [2,11] .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Facing a bleak reality, Papanicolaou felt deeply discouraged and, despite his nature, dismissed his study of the vaginal smear method for diagnostic purposes. Utterly rebuffed, he might have abandoned his research work altogether had it not been for Andromache's intuition and encouragement, which kept him engaged in cytologic investigation of the hormonal cycle [8,11,18] .…”

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Inception and Development of the Papanicolaou Stain Method

et al. 2017

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Objective: Cytodiagnoses of specific malignancies are enabled through analyses of abnormal nuclear chromatin and cytoplasmic features in stained cells. Aim: The objective of this work was to explore the inception, development, and chemistry of the Pap stain method introduced in 1942 by Dr. G.N. Papanicolaou. Study Design: To achieve this, we carried out a review of the English literature. Results: Between 1914 and 1933, Papanicolaou first analyzed vaginal squamous cells in guinea pigs and later in human vaginal fluid samples using hematoxylin and eosin with limited color reactions, correlating the cell-type morphology with endocrinology and histology. The 5-dye Pap stain method evolved through 2 salient phases. The first, between 1933 and 1942, saw the introduction of alcohol-ether fixation and aqueous waterblue staining to enhance cellular transparency, aiding the distinction of cervical cancer cells from benign cells, with quantitative and qualitative assessment of squamous cell maturity. The second phase, between 1942 and 1960, saw the introduction and refinement of various alcoholic cytoplasmic counterstaining schemes with orange G and EA (light green, Bismarck brown, eosin) and phosphotungstic acid, allowing wider ranges of polychromasia and further enhancing cellular visualization, facilitating the distinction of cell types and improving diagnostic confidence. Conclusions: Development of the Pap stain method followed specific historical and scientific events. The staining method evolved following incremental improvements in cellular transparency achieved through tailored cellular fixation and cytoplasmic staining using variable dye and pH combinations.

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