The diagnosis of carcinoma of the large bowel by exfoliative cytology

Recent Advances in the Investigation of Large Bowel Diseases

“…Despite the wide application of exfoliative cytology to the problem of cancer diagnosis in the last two decades (von Haam 1962), there have been few reports on the use of this technique in the colon. Those results which have been published confirm the value of the method (Raskin et al 1959, Oakland 1961, Burn 1961) but all emphasize that the main difficulty of using this technique is in cleansing the bowel of its fecal content prior to the collection of specimens. This problem is still not solved and is probably the reason why the method does not find advocates where cancer cytodiagnosis of other organs is established.…”

“…The following preparation, starting two days prior to examination is usually adequate although it may have to be continued for longer: Collection ofSpecimens Specimens are usually collected by colonic lavage with normal saline (Oakland 1961), but in a few cases a modification of the rectal washing apparatus, originally described by Loeb & Scapier (1951) is used during sigmoidoscopy.…”

Fluorescence microscopy in colonic exfoliative cytology

“…Exfoliative cytology has proved its worth as a method of detecting cancer of the gastro-intestinal tract (Raskin, Kirsner, and Palmer, 1958;Oakland, 1961;Schade, 1960;Burn and Sellwood, 1962), and it now remains to explore any method which reduces the time required to examine the material, so that the technique can be used to screen patients who are suspect or at risk (Day, 1961), for example those suffering from ulcerative colitis.…”

The results of exfoliative cytology studies in 50 patients with symptoms of large bowel disorder

“…Recent reports on the use of exfoliative cytology in the diagnosis of cancer of the large bowel have been encouraging in the degree of accuracy demonstrated (Ebeling and Little, 1957;Raskin, Palmer, 32 and Kirsner, 1959;Oakland, 1961). This paper records the results obtained in a further 50 patients with large bowel symptoms in whom this investigation was performed.…”