LAUSR

In the final compilation of this issue, the selected articles have been reproduced in their original format, each accompanied by the commentary. In addition to these invited commentaries, we have included a couple of proffered articles [2] considered to be of special interest to the readers and perfectly matched to the theme of this issue. For the first time, the publishers, too, wanted to contribute a short editorial [3] and give their expert view on the journal-related items that were discussed in the most recent editorials by our Editor-in-Chief [1, 4] . The series of commentaries starts with the contribution of Dr. Marshall Austin [5] , who was invited to comment on the only paper by Dr. Papanicolaou to be published in Acta Cytologica [6] . Towards the end of Dr. Papanicolaou’s career, he became interested in human endometrial explants placed into tissue culture. The initial focus of his studies was the phagocytic cells emanating from endometrial explants, and their role in cleansing the uterine cavity after each menstrual cycle and sterilizing the uterine cavity in the face of infection. Dr. Papanicolaou observed that explants of endometrial malignancies exhibited not only increased growth rates but also a visible proliferation of cells with readily identifiable cytological features of malignancy. Acknowledging that cytological screening for intrauterine malignancies had not been proven to be as reliable as screening for cervical cancer [7] , he hoped that this tissue culture explant technique might emerge as a new adjunctive method for the diagnosis of endometrial malignancies not readily detectable by other diagnostic procedures. Unfortunately, Dr. Papanicolaou’s untimely death in 1962 cut short his progress in this area. Dear Readers, Our 60-Year Anniversary Issue with the title “The Six Decades of Acta Cytologica ” is now complete. The enthusiasm and support of the senior editors and some of our regular reviewers meant we were able to publish this special issue in the format that was originally planned [1] . The past 60 years have coincided with the emergence of clinical cytology as an independent discipline, so this Jubilee issue is a tribute to the monumental work of the pioneering generation of cytologists and heirs, and does not forget to acknowledge some of the most notable developments of the more recent past. According to the original idea, a group of senior editors was asked to identify the single most influential study to represent each of the six decades of the life span of Acta Cytologica . When this selection was complete, we invited a foremost expert in each particular field to write a commentary on the selected article. The idea of these commentaries is to give a summary of the original article and its significance at the time of its publication as well as to describe its impact (i) on the development of our discipline and/or (ii) in increasing our scientific understanding. As always, the selected articles represent the preferences of our editors, but in most cases the selections were unanimously agreed upon by all, which I consider to have decreased the selection bias. No distinction was made between original studies and reviews, if the latter were considered influential enough to merit recognition in this Jubilee issue. No detailed instructions were given to the invited experts as to the writing of their commentary and, importantly, none of the authors invited declined the request. Published online: July 11, 2017