Timeline of cervical cancer

This is a timeline of cervical cancer, describing especially major discoveries and advances in treatment of the disease.

Big picture

Year/period	Key developments
19th century	Cervical cancer is identified as a sexually transmitted disease. At the end of the century, surgery is introduced for treating the disease.
Early 20th century	Epidemiologists discover that cervical cancer is common in female [...] workers and also common in women whose husbands have a high number of [...] partners or were regular customers of prostitutes.
1920s	Papanikolaou develops his eponymous technique. The colposcope is developed.
1940s	Pap smear screening begins.
1980s	First concrete evidence that specific Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types are linked to cervical cancer. Tobacco use is linked to cervical cancer.
2000s	First Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine is released. Several nations introduce the vaccination, such as United States, Canada, Australia and Japan.
Recent years	Today, cervical cancer is both the fourth-most common cause of cancer and the fourth-most common cause of death from cancer in women. In 2012, approximately 528,000 cases of cervical cancer occurred, with 266,000 deaths. This is AbOUT 8% of the total cases and total deaths from cancer. About 70% of cervical cancers occur in developing countries.

Full timeline

Year/period	Type of event	Event	Location
400 BCE	Development	First description of cervical cancer by Hippocrates.
1834	Discovery	Cervical cancer is identified as a sexually transmitted disease.
1842	Discovery	Italian epidemiologist Domenico Rigoni-Stern notices that cervical carcinoma occurs only in married women.
1898	Development	Austrian gynecologist Ernst Wertheim describes the operation of radical hysterectomy including removal of the parametrium and pelvic lymph nodes. A few years later, the Wertheim-Meigs operation is introduced as a surgical procedure for the treatment of cervical cancer performed by way of an abdominal incision.
1925	Development	German gynecologist Hans Hinselmann first describes the foundation of the colposcope, a device used to examine the cervix, vagina and vulva for signs of disease.
1928	Development	Greek cytopathologist Georgios Papanikolaou develops a cervical cytology smear test (today called Pap smear) to detect cancer cells. This test will save thousands of lives and help reduce cervical cancer mortality by a wide margin.
1943	Development	The Pap test is first generalized as a procedure, enabling doctors to detect and begin treating cervical cancer before it has a chance to spread. Over the following decades, the Pap test is credited with driving down cervical cancer death rates in developed countries.
1946	Development	Aylesbury spatula, a wooden spatula with an extended tip, is introduced to scrape the cervix, collecting the sample for the Pap smear.
1951	Development	First successful in-vitro cell line, HeLa, is derived from biopsy of cervical cancer of Henrietta Lacks.	United States
1953	Discovery	Adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) of the uterine cervix is first described.
1983	Discovery	Team led by German virologists Harald Zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann identify HPV 16 in precursor lesions of genital cancer.
1984	Discovery	Cigarette smoking is found to increase risk of cervical cancer.
1985	Discovery	Harald Zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann demonstrate the presence of HPV DNA in cervical cancer cells. These findings create the basis for subsequent studies leading to the development of preventive vaccines.
1988	Development	The Bethesda system (TBS) is introduced as a system for reporting cervical or vaginal cytologic diagnoses. It is considered to be an important achievement in the standardization of screening results.
1989	Discovery	Villoglandular adenocarcinoma of the cervix (a rare type of cervical cancer) is first described.
1989	Development	Loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP), which is performed in the surgical treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, is first described.
1990	Policy	The Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act is launched, providing nationwide access to free or low-cost breast and cervical cancer screenings to underserved women.	United States
1996–1999	Development	United States FDA approves two new liquid-based Pap tests. In these tests the swab is placed into a special preservative solution, instead of smearing a swab of cervical cells on a slide as in the conventional tests. Compared to the traditional method, these liquid tests provide a clearer, easier to read sample for pathologists to review under a microscope.	United States
1998	Development	Researchers begin human testing of a possible vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.	United States
1999	Discovery	Study shows that widespread screening reduces cases of advanced cervical cancer in older women.	California, US
1999		The United States National Cancer Institute issues an alert recommending chemotherapy radiation combination for invasive cervical cancer (cancer that has spread within the cervix or pelvis). This is based on trials showing that women live longer when treated with both radiation and chemotherapy, compared to those treated with the prior standard of radiation or surgery alone.	United States
1999	Development	DNA test is approved to detect human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer.
2006	Treatment	United States FDA approves Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents infection with the two high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers. Gardasil is approved for girls and young women aged 9 to 26.	United States
2007	Discovery	Study suggests that the act of performing a Pap smear produces an inflammatory cytokine response, which may initiate immunologic clearance of HPV, thus reducing the risk of cervical cancer.	South Africa
2008	Discovery	Researchers discover that two minimally invasive techniques, laparoscopic and robotic radical hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) with radical pelvic lymphadenectomy (removal of surrounding pelvic lymph nodes) are as effective as traditional radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy in women with cervical cancer.
2009	Discovery	HPV vaccine Gardasil is found to be over 90 percent effective in preventing cervical cancer in women aged 24 to 45 who received all three vaccine doses, and who are not infected by the virus.
2010	Policy	Young women in Japan become eligible to receive cervical cancer vaccination for free. However, in 2013 the local Health Ministry withdraws the vaccine recommendation for girls due to several hundred adverse reactions to the vaccines reported.	Japan
2013	Discovery	Adding targeted [...] bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy is found to improve survival for patients with relapsed and advanced cervical cancers.

Adenocarcinoma in situAustraliaAvastinAylesbury spatulaBethesda systemBevacizumabBiopsyCaliforniaCanadaCancerCervical cancerCervical intraepithelial neoplasiaCervixChemotherapyCigarette smokingColposcopeCytokineCytopathologyDeveloping countriesDNAErnst WertheimFDAGardasilGeorgios PapanikolaouHans HinselmannHarald Zur HausenHeLaHenrietta LacksHippocratesHPVHPV 16HPV vaccinesHuman papillomavirusHuman papillomavirus infectionHysterectomyJapanLaparoscopyLoop electrosurgical excision procedureLutz GissmannLymphadenectomyMicroscopeNational Cancer InstitutePap smearPap testPapillomavirusParametriumPelvisSouth AfricaSurgeryTimeline of bladder cancerTimeline of brain cancerTimeline of colorectal cancerTimeline of kidney cancerTimeline of liver cancerTimeline of lung cancerTimeline of pancreatic cancerUnited StatesUSUterine cervixVaccineVaginaVilloglandular adenocarcinoma of the cervixVulvaWertheim-Meigs operation

External links (14)

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http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa071430

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