Cytology—Past and future

✍ Scribed by John M. Lukeman

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 255 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0147-0272
• DOI: 10.1016/s0147-0272(80)80007-9

✦ Synopsis

WHEN THE CELL WAS ESTABLISHED AS THE UNIT OF TISSUE structure in the 19th century, great interest in its biologic appearance and function developed. Schleiden 1 published his cell theory and Mueller 2 wrote a treatise on the subject of cancer cells in 1838. Both Walshe 3 and Donn~ 4 published articles on the appearance of malignant cells in pulmonary carcinoma. At the end of the 19th century and early in the 20th, Hampeln 5 published a series of 25 reports on the diagnosis of malignant cells in pulmonary cancer, but diagnosis by cytologic techniques was thought to be unreliable.

In the early 1930s, Martin and Ellis G at Memorial Hospital for Cancer, New York, used aspiration cytology as a diagnostic procedure for the diagnosis and treatment of carcinoma of many organs, but still enthusiasm was not kindled. The lack of a good fixative and staining procedure may have acted as a deterrent. Perhaps the introduction of the mechanical microtome and its acceptance by such renowned pathologists as N. C. Foote, F. Stewart and A. P. Stout inspired surgeons to perform surgical rather than needle biopsy.