DURING the years since the introduction of the Papanicolaou classification, there has evolved increased understanding of cervical and vaginal neoplasia. This classification did not reflect an equivalent tissue diagnosis that could be unequivocally interpreted by the attending clinician, and it did not reflect the now-accepted noncancerous cervical and vaginal changes.
It was time for the development of new terminology and classifications of cervical and vaginal cytology that would reflect clearly current knowledge of the histological changes as related to cytological findings. Furthermore, there was the clamor about the need for evaluation and regulation of laboratories providing interpretation of the smears. Obviously, without a standard, clearly understood terminology, there would be no acceptable way to evaluate the interpretation of the cytological smears on a nationwide basis.
To this end, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wholeheartly participated, along with 10 other groups, in the Workshop on the Terminology for Cervical