Pap Smear George Papanicolaou, a physician and researcher born on this date in 1883 in Greece, developed and gave his name to what is known as the Pap test. Papanicolaou received his medical degree from the University of Athens in 1904 and a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Munich six years later. After immigrating to the United States in 1913, he became an anatomy assistant at Cornell University. In 1923, Papanicolaou studied vaginal smears of women who had cervical cancer and found cancer cells present. He theorized that a microscopic smear of vaginal fluid could detect the presence of cancer cells. Twenty years later, in 1943, he published findings that his test could indicate cervical cancer before symptoms appear. Papanicolaou died of a heart attack in 1962.
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