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Visions of Utopia

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Gender and Cancer in England, 1860-1948

Part of the book series: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History ((MBSMH))

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Abstract

This chapter explores medical efforts to detect cervical cancer in its earliest, ‘pre-cancerous’ or ‘non-invasive’ stage by the application of three methods: the Schiller test, the colposcope and the Pap test. Moscucci explores the reception of these methods in Britain, arguing that British doubts about the value of periodical examinations and screening of apparently ‘well’ people served to delay the introduction of screening programmes for cervical cancer. Lack of enthusiasm for screening in Britain can also explain why the ‘wet film’ technique, a cytological method of intra-operative diagnosis introduced by pathologist Leonard Dudgeon in the late 1920s, failed to develop into a screening method, despite showing great promise as a means of detecting early cervical and lung cancer.

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    Ornella Moscucci

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Moscucci, O. (2016). Visions of Utopia. In: Gender and Cancer in England, 1860-1948. Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60109-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60109-7_6

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