[Retrospect and prospect of clinical oncocytological research]

After the hard development in half a century, a spurt of progress in Chinese clinical oncocytology research appears with promotion of new techniques and methods. Clinical application of Papanicolaou smear began at early 1950s, the use of it in nationwide screening for cervical cancer resulted in obvious decline of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. Among all screening tests, liquid-based (Thin Prep) cytology is of great value in diagnosis. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been applied to different parts and organs of human body,no evidence showed tumor spreading along needle tract. In the past 30 years, esophagus balloon cytologic test has been used in China for about 360 000 person/time,severe hyperplasia of esophagus epithelium was found in about 10 000 cases, esophagus cancer or cardiac cancer was found in more than 27 000 cases, cancer of early stage was found in more than 2 800 cases. Among esophasgus cancer detected by esophagus exfoliative cytology, more than 80% were cancer of early stage with no clinical symptoms. The correctly diagnosis rate was 98.5%. Argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) was widely used in clinics,more than 500 papers on relevant field have been published in China, including the application in different kinds of malignant tumors, such as stomach cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer. In differential diagnosis of malignant lymphoma and benign lymph node diseases, AgNOR is more valuable. Four suggestions for the future development of clinical oncocytology have been presented in this paper.