Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951) unknowingly shaped modern medicine. For the last seventy years, scientists have used cells taken from her body–without her knowledge or permission–to develop vaccines, conduct research, and more.
Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951) unknowingly shaped modern medicine. For the last seventy years, scientists have used cells taken from her body–without her knowledge or permission–to develop vaccines, conduct research, and more.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. This is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting women who worked in health and wellness.
Today, we’re talking about a woman who unknowingly shaped modern medicine. For the last seventy years, scientists have used cells taken from her body – without her knowledge or permission – to develop vaccines, conduct research, and more.
Let’s talk about Henrietta Lacks.
Henrietta was born on August 1st, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. When she was four years old, her mother passed away. Afterwards, Henrietta moved to Clover, Virginia, where she was raised by her grandfather. There, she worked on a tobacco farm with other members of her family.
In 1941, Henrietta got married to David Lacks, and moved to Maryland. She had five children, and was a pillar of support to her extended family as well. Her door was always open.
In 1950, Henrietta told her cousins that she felt like there was a “knot” inside of her. She started experiencing abnormal vaginal bleeding, and after she gave birth to her fifth child, doctors noticed a lump in her cervix that wasn’t going away.
Several months after experiencing those initial symptoms, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was the only hospital in the area that treated Black patients, but they were placed in segregated wards.
After Henrietta received a biopsy, doctors determined that Henrietta had cervical cancer.
To treat the cancer, her doctors put tubes of radium, a radioactive metal, into little pouches. Then, they sewed those pouches into the inside of her cervix. The goal was for the radium to kill the cancer cells growing inside Henrietta’s body.
During this surgical procedure, Henrietta’s surgeon took two tissue samples from her body - one from her normal cervical tissue, and one from her tumor. These samples were then sent to the head of tissue culture research at Johns Hopkins, Dr. George Otto Gey.
Dr. Gey had been collecting cells from all Hopkins’ patients with cervical cancer for years. All of the cells he had collected died within a few days. But Dr. Gey was trying to create a line of ‘immortal cells’. Cells that could reproduce indefinitely.
When Dr. Gey received Henrietta’s cells, he made a remarkable discovery - unlike other cells he had encountered, Henrietta’s continuously multiplied on their own. They doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
Gey named the cell culture HeLa- taking the first two letters from Henrietta’s first and last name. He began using the cells for cancer research.
But Henrietta had no knowledge that her tissue cells were being used in this way. At the time, it was common for surgeons to collect cell samples from patients without their knowledge or consent.
And while Henrietta’s cells were multiplying, Henrietta herself was declining in health. By September of 1951, her internal organs were covered in cancerous tumors. She died on October 4, 1951, at 31 years old.
After Henrietta’s death, Dr. Gey wanted to collect more samples from her body. But legally, he couldn’t perform an autopsy on Henrietta without permission from her family. So physicians convinced her husband that further tests could potentially help their children.
Researchers continued using HeLa cells for decades. They are used to study the human genome, for disease research, and helped develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Henrietta’s cells even went to space to test the effects of zero gravity on human cells. Scientists buy vials of Henrietta’s cells for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.
But Henrietta’s family was never compensated for the use of Henrietta’s cells. Her family didn’t even know that her cells were being used in this way until the 1970s. And they only found out because scientists tracked down Henrietta’s children to obtain blood samples that could be used in additional studies.
But today, more people are learning about Henrietta’s story. In 2010, author Rebecca Skloot published a New York Times bestselling book called ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’, that was later adapted into an HBO film starring Oprah Winfrey.
And just this past year, in 2021, Henrietta Lack’s family brought lawsuits against biomedical corporations that have profited off of HeLa cells. They’re demanding their share of the profits.
Today, HeLa cells are still alive and multiplying, helping researchers create new breakthroughs in medicine.
All month, we’re highlighting women in health and wellness.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!