Henrietta Lacks was a pioneer of science, and she didn’t even know it. Lacks passed away on October 4th, 1951; at only 31 years old. Since her death, Lacks has become the basis for extensive amounts of research, scientific breakthroughs, and treatment development. Even if you have never heard of Henrietta Lacks, I’ll bet you’ve heard of HeLa cells.
Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who lived much of her life in Virginia and Maryland. Growing up, she worked on her grandfather’s tobacco farm with her cousins. Lacks lived in her grandfather’s tobacco farm with her cousin Day, who she later married. Day and Henrietta Lacks had 5 children together: Deborah, Elsie, Zakariyya, David, and Lawrence Lacks.
When Henrietta Lacks was 30, she discovered a hard lump inside of her cervix, roughly the size of a nickel. After she discovered the lump, Lacks went to the John Hopkins Hospital 20 miles from her house, because that was the closest hospital that offered medical care to African American patients. Even though John Hopkins treated African American patients, the hospital was still segregated (even though this was the 1950s-the Jim Crow era). Lacks was seen by gynecologist Howard Jones at John Hopkins Hospital. Jones biopsied Lacks’ tumor and diagnosed Henrietta with stage I Epidermoid Carcinoma of the Cervix, meaning that it came from epithelial cells.
Richard Wesley TeLinde was conducting research on cervical cancer in the 1950s, and TeLinde also worked at John Hopkins Hospital. A common practice at John Hopkins at the time was to take tissue samples from patients and culture (grow) the cells without the knowledge or consent of the patients. This taking of tissue was viewed as “payment” by the John Hopkins Hospital, since they treated mostly people of low income who often could not afford to pay for their medical treatments. In 1950, there were no ethics laws in place for research in science like there are today. So, while this may be 100% immoral and unethical, it was not illegal at the time (it is absolutely illegal now). When Henrietta Lacks went in for her first radiation treatment for her cervical cancer, surgeon Lawrence Walton Jr took a sample of her tumor and her normal cervix tissue, without Henrietta’s knowledge.
Lacks’ tissue samples were given to George Gey, a scientist who’d been attempting to culture human cells successfully for years, but all his cell lines had perished thus far. Gey put the samples in tubes with a growth media and incubated them. Within days, Henrietta’s cancer cells had doubled. Not only were her tumor’s cells surviving, they were growing exponentially. Standard cell line naming convention was the first two letters of the patients first and last names: HeLa.
Gey sent HeLa cells to every scientist he thought would have a use for them, and soon HeLa was all over the world. While Henrietta’s cancer cells were being sent around the world, she was slowly dying from both the cancer and the radiation. The radiation was burning her skin, and more and more tumors started growing inside of her. Henrietta Lacks died from her cancer on October 4th, 1951. She was 31 years old.
Even after Henrietta Lacks’ death, HeLa lived on. Soon, commercial companies got their hands on HeLa, and started selling vials of Henrietta’s cells for roughly $100-$10,000 per vial. Neither Henrietta Lacks nor her family ever saw a penny of that revenue. Today, the selling of HeLa cells is a billion dollar industry, and the Lacks family still has never seen a cent. For years, the Lacks family wasn’t even aware that Henrietta’s cells were being used in science or sold for profit. Henrietta died never knowing her cells were being cultured.
The list of scientific discoveries, treatments, patents, and disease eradications that HeLa cells have made possible is endless. HeLa cells have allowed for trial and error in curating ideal growth mediums and perfecting the practice. HeLa cells were used to create human-animal hybrids and count chromosomes, which eventually led to genome mapping and the Human Genome Project. Countless numbers of scientific patents have their roots in HeLa cells, using them in the research that led to the patent. Henrietta’s cells have also been used to identify that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can lead to cervical cancer. Most notably, Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells were used in the development of HPV vaccines and the polio vaccine, which eventually led to the eradication of polio.
Despite all of these amazing achievements that came from HeLa cells, many people still do not know who Henrietta Lacks is or what she has done, including a large portion of the scientific community. Without Henrietta Lacks, science and technology would be nowhere near where it is today. It is important to share her story, and never let the world forget who Henrietta Lacks is.
Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, takes you through all the details of Henrietta Lacks’ life. Skloot dives into everything in this article and so much more. Henrietta Lacks’ story is one worth telling, and one you should know.