Diagnostic cytology

Abstract

The Cytology Division of the Pathology Department of a medium size metropolitan hospital with an active outpatient department reports a statistic analysis of its material studied during 1959. From a few hundred specimens submitted in 1955 the volume increased to over three thousand in 1959, and there is every indication that the continued expansion of this service will be needed. Although statistically small, this group of examinations multiplied by the large number of similar hospitals in the country can become a significant contribution in the field of early detection and cure of cancer. These procedures further developed and vigorously employed in the vast number of similar hospitals throughout the country can come to represent a truly great contribution toward the early detection and successful treatment of cancer. Gynecologic cytologic examinations have far outnumbered those in all other fields (about eighteen to one) but they have been employed routinely only by gynecologists. A plea is made for extending the obvious advantages of these examinations to the much larger group of women under the care of internists, surgeons and general practitioners. Although proved of great value in the early detection of carcinoma of the female genitalia other applications of cytologic diagnostic procedures give promise of increasing usefulness in the future and should be diligently explored.