3/25/24 The Cancer Detectives

We preview the next American Experience documentary film - "The Cancer Detectives" - with co-directors/co-producers Amanda Pollak and Gene Tempest. The film talks about the most important breakthrough in early cancer detection among woman: the pap smear, named for Dr. George Papanicolaou. The film charts the circuitous route by which this became a well-established practice- and the various barriers and attitudes that had to be surmounted. The film also tells about the enormously important contributions made to the cause by Dr. Papanicolaou's wife Andromachi and others.