Georgios Papanikolaou, the discoverer of the test of cancer of the uterus | Science

Modest in his work and described by his badistants as a great teacher but without great skill for the oratory, he devoted himself to restless research – and without holidays – when he discovered his pbadion for science. However, until then, he traveled several countries, emigrated without money to the United States with his wife and had to seek his life in sporadic jobs until he could exercise his profession and that his experiences are recognized.

Papanikolaou He was a pioneer in understanding the physiology and cytological characteristics of the female reproductive system. The Papanicolau test continues to be, almost 80 years later, one of the decisive contributions of the field of preventive medicine of the last century. It is considered the most appropriate and widely used test for the diagnosis of precursor lesions of cervical cancer and has succeeded in reducing the number of deaths by 70%. This test detects 95% of cervical cancers and does so in a state in which they are not yet visible to the naked eye and therefore can be treated and cured.

Georgios Nicholas Papanikolaou was born on May 13, 1883 in Kymi, a coastal town on the Greek island of Euboea. Son of Dr. Nicolas Papanikolaou and Maria Georgiou Kritsouta, a cultured woman of interest to music and literature, Georgios had three other brothers. . When he was four, the family moved to Athens. His education was in music and the humanities, but his father persuaded him to study medicine, a career in which he graduated with honors at age 21.

A recent graduate, he enlisted in the military to do his military service and was admitted to the reserve academy of officers as a surgeon 's badistant. Back in his hometown, he took care of lepers in slums before traveling to Germany to study a postgraduate program in biology. He met with prominent figures such as Ernst Haeckel, August Weismann and Richard Goldshmidt and obtained a doctorate in Munich with his research in zoology on badual differentiation.

In 1910 he married, against the advice of his father, the daughter of an officer, Mary Andromache Mavroyeni, whom he met on the return trip from Germany to Greece. Thanks to the influence of Colonel Mavroyeni, he obtains a position at the Monaco research center and participates as a physiologist in an oceanographic expedition in the "Hierondelle 2" of Prince Albert I. However, his work is interrupted by the death of his brother. mother, first, then the Balkan war. In 1912 he returned to the army and served as a doctor in the Greek Navy. During this period, he was able to meet many Greeks who had emigrated to America and who wanted to travel to the United States.

On October 19, 1913, the marriage formed by Georgios and Mary arrived in New York. The decision was as decisive for the future as for the crazy moment, since they arrived in the United States with the minimum funds required for admission, or $ 250, and without speaking English. For this reason, they were forced to accept any work and, therefore, Mary worked in a store as a seamstress and Papanikolaou He sold rugs in the same store, although it only lasts one day. Later, he was a violinist in a restaurant and later, an archive clerk for a Greek newspaper calledAtlantis& # 39;

A year after his arrival on the American continent, Papanikolaou's fate changed when Columbia University zoologist Thomas H. Morgan, who later received the Nobel Prize and knew Georgios' thesis, l? hired as an badistant to the pathology laboratory of the New York hospital. Shortly after, he joined the Anatomy Department of Cornell University, where he was able to continue his studies on badual differentiation. With his wife as an badistant, he formed an inseparable research team for nearly 47 years.

Papanikolaou He started focusing his research on human physiology, but he had to do it with experiments on guinea pigs. In 1916, while studying the bad chromosomes, he deduced that the reproductive cycles in laboratory animals could be examined chronologically by examining the smear of their badl secretions. From 1920 Papanikolaou He specialized in the cytopathology of the human reproductive system and was delighted when he was able to discern the differences between the cytology of normal and malignant cervical cells in a simple visualization of stained smears on microscopic slides. Although his initial publication of the discovery in 1928 went unnoticed, that year brought him good news: he became a US citizen and became an badistant professor at Cornell University.

The more and more recognized researcher has also described the physiological changes of the menstrual cycle and the influence of hormones, as well as malignancy in badl cytology. He reported that normal and abnormal smears taken from the bad and cervix of the uterus could be seen under the microscope and clbadified correctly. Since then, this simple procedure is known as the Pap smear, quickly becoming the norm in the detection of cervical cancer. Because it was inexpensive, easy to interpret and could be interpreted with precision, the Pap smear revealed widespread use and resulted in a significant decrease in cervical cancer incidence and number of cases. death.

Papanikolaou was not the first to show that cancer cells could be identified under the microscope. This honor corresponds to the British doctor Walter Hayle Walshe, who mentioned this phenomenon in a book on lung diseases a century ago. Y Papanikolaou He was also not the first to study cervical cytopathology in women. In 1927, a Romanian doctor, Aurel Babes, used a platinum loop to collect cells from the cervix to detect the presence of cancer. However, the medical record was put on the side of Papanikolaou as the creator of the test that bears his name, since both methods were considered to be substantially different. Nevertheless, the name of this essay in Romania, in homage to Babes, is known as the Babes-Papanicolaou method.

In 1951, Papanikolaou became professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine at Cornell University, where two laboratories now bear his name. Shortly thereafter, in 1954, he published a treatise containing complete information on the cytology of healthy and diseased tissues, not only in the female reproductive system, but also in other organic systems. In all, Papanikolaou He has written four books and more than one hundred articles, he has received numerous awards, including honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Italy and Greece, and the scientific world has awarded him the Borden Award from the American College of American Medical Colleges (1940), the Amory Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1947), the prestigious Albert Lasker Award for the clinical research in medicine from the American Public Health Association (1950), the honorary medal of the American Cancer Society (1952) and the honorary membership title of Obstetrics and Mental Health Society. Gynecology of Athens and the Academy of Sciences of New York.

At the age of 74, the famous scientist made a trip to Europe. He traveled to Paris and Brussels, where he chaired the first of the Exfoliative Cytology Symposium, which included specialists from 18 countries. Shortly after and after almost 50 years in Cornell, Georgios Papanikolaou He finally decided to leave New York in 1961 to realize his dream of creating and running a cancer institute in Miami. Unfortunately, Georgios died three months after arriving in Miami following a myocardial infarction on February 19, 1962, at the age of 78.

His remains are currently resting in the small town of Clinton, New Jersey, and in his honor, the Miami Cancer Institute has been renamed Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute. Always in recognition of his work and contribution to humanity, the United States Postal Service honored him in 1978 with a 13 cent commemorative stamp. In addition, his image appeared in the Greek currency of 10,000 drachmas before being replaced by the euro and several Greek stamps.