Recent developments in the cytologic diagnosis of vaginal, endometrial and ovarian cancer.

Cytology has proved to be an effective and simple technique for the di­ agnosis of cancer of the uterine cervix. The usefulness of cytologic methods in detecting other types of tumors of the female genital tract has been rela­ tively limited. In recent years, new developments have focused attention on the use of cytology in the following areas: (1 ) detection of adenosis and adenocarcinoma of the vagina in daughters of women who received synthetic estrogens during pregnancy; (2 ) detection of early stages of adenocarcinoma of the endometrium by direct sampling methods and (3 ) prognostic evalua­ tion of cancer of the ovary by examination of peritoneal washings. The present report reviews the cytologic methods involved in these procedures with consideration of both technical and interpretive aspects.