Screening for Vaginal Cancer

Until recently, cancer of the uterine cervix was a major cause of death among women of reproductive age in the United States.1 In the 1960s, the pioneering work of Papanicolaou and Traut on the cytologic examination of exfoliated cells from the uterine cervix was recognized for its lifesaving potential to detect cancer, and the regular screening of women for cervical cancer — and, more important, its precursors — gradually became a routine part of medical practice.2 Nonetheless, the practice of cervical cytologic screening (the Pap smear) owes its wide acceptance not so much to public recognition of its value, but . . .