Diagnosis of cancer of the cervix: the early lesion.

Abstract

The most important factor in our ability to cure cervical cancer, in spite of the refinements of irradiation and the recent advances in surgery, still remains the stage in which the disease is detected and treated. The advanced lesion continues to be an almost hopeless problem, while the early lesion, regardless of the type of therapy, provided it be adequate, enjoys an excellent prognosis. In our present stage of knowledge, intra-epithelial carcinoma is the earliest stage in which cervical cancer permits diagnosis and hence has the best prognosis. The concept of intra-epithelial carcinoma can by no means be claimed by our generation as its own. The medical world was first introduced to this subject in 1908 by Schottlaender and Kermauner, who observed that a surface layer of malignant cells was often found at the periphery of deeply invasive carcinoma and concluded that cervical cancer progressed in this manner. Schiller, after years of exhaustive and meticulous histologic investigation, presented us, in ...