In humans it is associated with a particular form of cancer which is detectable by cytological study of epidermal cells remove from the cervix in a process known as the [smear test]?.
The PAP-smear as we know it is an invention of Dr. G.N. Papanicolaou?, 1883-1962, an American of Greek birth, the father of cytopathology?. He first published a large series of cases in "Diagnosis of uterine cancer by the vaginal smear" (Papanicolaou & Traut, 1943) The sampling technique has hardly changed ever since.