The Vaginal Smear in the Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer12

Abstract

WE ARE presenting evidence that uterine cancer can be diagnosed with accuracy by the vaginal smear. The diagnosis depends upon the identification of cancer cells in the vaginal secretion. Papanicolaou, in 1928, first recognized cancer cells in the vaginal secretion of women with cancer of the uterus. Since 1941 articles have appeared by Papanicolaou (1) and Papanicolaou and Traut (2, 3); and in 1943 a monograph on the diagnosis of uterine cancer by vaginal smear (4) was published by these two authors. In the same year Meigs et al. (5) published results on 220 cases. Since our publication we have studied approximately 600 additional cases and here report on our total group of 813, statistics of which follow. The method is simple. A nurse or the patient herself can easily be taught to take the smear. A dry pipette, with a rubber suction bulb compressed, is inserted into the fornix of the vagina, the bulb is released and the pipette withdrawn. Vaginal secretion is blown on a previously marked glass slide, fi...