In January 1951, according to Skloot, Lacks continued to feel a knot inside her and, combined with her atypical vaginal bleeding and a lump on her cervix that persisted months after giving birth, she decided to seek medical attention.
Full Answer
What did Henrietta Lacks do for US?
Henrietta Lacks, born Loretta Pleasant, had terminal cervical cancer in 1951, and was diagnosed at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where researchers collected and stored her cancer cells. Those cells went on to become the first immortal human cell line, which the researchers named HeLa.
How was Henrietta Lacks treated for cervical cancer?
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was treated at the segregated Johns Hopkins Hospital with radium tube inserts, a standard treatment at the time. As a matter of routine, samples of her cervix were removed without permission.
What happened to Henrietta Lacks cells?
Though Henrietta Lacks died on 4 October 1951 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, her cells continue to live on through the HeLa cell line, as of 2020. Fabrikant, Jacob I., George J. Richards Jr, C. Bernard Brack, and Paul N. Goodwin.
Should Johns Hopkins have done more to help Henrietta Lacks’ family?
Having reviewed our interactions with Henrietta Lacks and with the Lacks family over more than 50 years, we found that Johns Hopkins could have – and should have – done more to inform and work with members of Henrietta Lacks’ family out of respect for them, their privacy and their personal interests.
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Why did Henrietta Lacks go to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment?
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a Black mother of five who was dying of cervical cancer, went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for treatment. Without her knowledge or consent, doctors removed a sample of cells from the tumor in her cervix.
How fast did Henrietta's cancer cells grow?
Lacks' cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
Did Henrietta Lacks get treatment?
Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old African American mother of five who sought treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the early 1950s. Doctors diagnosed Lacks with cervical cancer, and as medical records show, she received the best medical treatment available to any woman for this terrible disease.
What is Henrietta not told about during her first treatment?
What is Henrietta not told about during her “first treatment” (pp. 32–33)? Henrietta is not told that tissue samples will be taken from her cervix. Skloot writes that while “no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor . . .
What does vaginal cancer look like?
These can include: An area on the vulva that looks different from normal – it could be lighter or darker than the normal skin around it, or look red or pink. A bump or lump, which could be red, pink, or white and could have a wart-like or raw surface or feel rough or thick. Thickening of the skin of the vulva.
What made Henrietta's cells immortal?
Lacks' cancer was a uniquely aggressive case, and her biopsy sample doubled in volume every 20 to 24 hours where other cultures would normally die out. If they were fed the right mixture of nutrients to allow them to grow, the cells were effectively immortal.
When did Henrietta Lacks start treatment?
On August 8, 1951, Lacks, who was 31 years old, went to Johns Hopkins for a routine treatment session and asked to be admitted due to continued severe abdominal pain. She received blood transfusions and remained at the hospital until her death on October 4, 1951.
What were Henrietta's last words?
Henrietta died in October 1951. Her last words were to her sister Gladys. Henrietta Lacks' kids were the last thing she spoke about.
How did the Lacks family find out about the HeLa cells 24 years later?
For decades, Lacks's family was kept in the dark about what happened to her cells. In 1973, the family learned the truth when scientists asked for DNA samples after finding that HeLa had contaminated other samples.
Did Henrietta give consent?
Henrietta's cells (more commonly known as HeLa cells), were taken without her consent when she was being treated for cervical cancer and were considered to be immortal; unlike most other cells, they lived and grew continuously in culture.
How does Henrietta react when she is told that she is infertile after her treatments?
Around this time, Henrietta was horrified to learn that a side effect of her treatment was infertility. Although Jones and TeLinde insist that they told all their patients about the fertility loss, Henrietta insisted no one had told her, and that she wouldn't have agreed to the treatments had she known.
What happened to Henrietta's cells every 24 hours?
Henrietta's were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.
Who grants Lacks family control?
In 2013 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted the Lacks family control over how data on the HeLa cell genome would be used (the genome of a HeLa cell line had been sequenced in full earlier that year).
What was the first treatment for radium?
After further tests, Henrietta received the first of several radium treatments, the standard of care for the day, which involved stitching small glass tubes of the radioactive metal secured in fabric pouches—called Brack plaques—to the cervix.
Did Henrietta die from cancer?
While her cells thrived, Henrietta declined. By September the cancer had spread throughout her body, and early the following month Henrietta died. However, the HeLa cells, famed for their longevity, continued to thrive in culture long after Henrietta’s death.
Who chronicled Henrietta Lacks' life?
Science writer Rebecca Skloot chronicled Lacks’s life in her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became a movie in 2017.
What was Lacks' first treatment?
Following the standard for the day, Lacks’s first treatment involved Lawrence Wharton Jr., the surgeon on duty, taking tubes of radium, putting those tubes in little pouches, sometimes called Brack plaques, and then sewing those pouches to the inside of her cervix. Radium is a radioactive metal that is lethal to cells.
What was Henrietta Lacks's first cell line?
Those cells went on to become the first immortal human cell line , which the researchers named HeLa. An immortal cell line is an atypical cluster of cells that continuously multiply on their own outside of the organism from which they came, often due to a mutation. Lacks’s cancer cells enabled scientists to study human cells outside of the human body, though that was controversial since she did not voluntarily donate her cells for such research. Science writer Rebecca Skloot chronicled Lacks’s life in her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became a movie in 2017. Lacks’s HeLa cell line has contributed to numerous biomedical research advancements and discoveries and her story has prompted legal and ethical debates over the rights that an individual has to their genetic material and tissue.
Why did Lacks and her husband move to Bethlehem Steel?
According to Skloot, Lacks's cousins encouraged Lacks and her husband to follow them to Bethlehem Steel to escape the poverty that came with being tobacco farmers. After their marriage in 1941, the couple moved to Turner Station in Maryland, so Lacks’s husband could work for Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point.
When did HeLa cells proliferate?
When the HeLa cell line successfully proliferated in 1951, Gey informed his colleagues that his lab may have grown the first immortal human cell line, offering them vials of Lacks’s cells. For a little over a month after her diagnosis in 1951, Lacks’s family did not know of her cancer.
Why did Lacks' father divide his children?
There, Lacks’s father divided his children to be raised among relatives. According to Skloot, that is because Lacks’s father did not have the patience for raising children. Lacks was raised by her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, who was simultaneously raising his other grandchild, Lacks’s first cousin David Lacks, or Day.
When did Lacks's HeLa cell line become known?
Despite the widespread use of Lacks’s cells in research, Lacks’s identity as the donor of the HeLa cell line was known only to the scientific community in 1970, before Lacks’s own family became aware in 1975.
How did Henrietta Lacks die?
Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 in Virginia and died of cervical cancer in 1951. Cells taken from her body without her knowledge were used to form the HeLa cell line, which has been used extensively in medical research since that time. Lacks' case has sparked legal and ethical debates over the rights of an individual to his or her genetic material ...
Who was Henrietta Lacks' first cousin?
Henrietta Lacks shared a room with her first cousin, David "Day" Lacks. In 1935, the cousins had a son they called Lawrence. Henrietta was 14. The couple had a daughter, Elsie, in 1939, and married in 1941. Henrietta and David moved to Maryland at the urging of another cousin, Fred Garret.
What is the Johns Hopkins statement?
In February 2010, Johns Hopkins released the following statement concerning the cervical samples that were taken from Lacks without her consent: "Johns Hopkins Medicine sincerely acknowledges the contribution to advances in biomedical research made possible by Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells.
What is the book that Rebecca Skloot wrote?
Rebecca Skloot later wrote a popular book on the subject, called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Oprah Winfrey and HBO announced plans to develop a film based on Skloot's 2010 book and in 2017, the network aired the biopic.
What was the HeLa strain used for?
The HeLa strain revolutionized medical research. Jonas Salk used the HeLa strain to develop the polio vaccine, sparking mass interest in the cells. As demand grew, scientists cloned the cells in 1955. Since that time, over ten thousand patents involving HeLa cells have been registered.
What is the Hela case?
The HeLa case has raised questions about the legality of using genetic materials without permission. Neither Lacks nor her family granted permission to harvest her cells, which were then cloned and sold.
What did Gey discover about HeLa?
Gey noticed an unusual quality in the cells. Unlike most cells, which survived only a few days, Lacks's cells were far more durable. Gey isolated and multiplied a specific cell, creating a cell line. He dubbed the resulting sample HeLa, derived from the name Henrietta Lacks.
What was Henrietta Lacks diagnosed with?
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was treated at the segregated Johns Hopkins Hospital with radium tube inserts, a standard treatment at the time. As a matter of routine, samples of her cervix were removed without permission. George Otto Gey (1899-1970), a cancer researcher at Hopkins had been trying ...
What is the life and death of Henrietta Lacks?
The life and death of Henrietta Lacks is a cautionary tale that reflects the inherent contradiction between the stated purpose of medical research to provide benefit to human kind and the reality of blatant profiteering in the name of the advancement of science.
What is the name of the book that Henrietta Lacks wrote?
Dr. Spigner teaches a course in the University of Washington’s Honors’ College based on the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was born August 1, 1920, into a family of impoverished tobacco farmers in Roanoke, Virginia. She died at the age of 31 from the effects of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951, ...
Where did the Henrietta Lacks cells come from?
George Gey attempted to protect the privacy of the deceased Henrietta Lacks. Thus the origin of the cells was alleged to have come from Helen Lane or Helen Larson, or even from Austrian-born American actress, Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000). Gey was the consummate professional biologist and used Henrietta Lacks’s cells in the sole interests ...
Why were He-La cells shot into space?
He-La cells were shot into space to test the effects of gravity on the human cell. Research on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and on apopotsis or programmed cell death (PCD) was also advanced because of Lack’s still living cells. The genetic revolution exploded almost immediately following her death.
Who used Henrietta Lacks cells?
Gey was the consummate professional biologist and used Henrietta Lacks’s cells in the sole interests of finding a cure for cancer. With no desire for profit, he made the He-La cells available to all interested in biological research, including virologist Jonas Salk (1914-1995).
When was Henrietta Lacks book published?
Yet since the book’s publication in 2010, bio-medical institutions have successfully adopted the tactics of politicians and movie stars when caught engaging in bad behavior. Slick websites under bio-medical sponsorship which pay homage to Henrietta Lacks, have sprung up like weeds in a garden.
How long did Henrietta stay in the hospital?
After two days in the hospital, the radium plaques that had been affixed to her cervix were removed, and she was sent home with instructions to return in two and a half weeks for a second treatment.
Who wrote the short form summary of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?
This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
What is the controversy about Henrietta Lacks?
The Controversial Truth About Henrietta Lacks. The history books don't spend a lot of time on the details, but many modern breakthroughs in medical science can be traced back to the cells of a poor black woman from Virginia named Henrietta Lacks. While her cells led to giant leaps in medical science and giant paychecks for pharmaceutical companies, ...
What led to Henrietta Lacks' death?
HeLa cells, for all the good things they did, also led to Henrietta Lacks's early death. While Gey was celebrating the discovery of endlessly replicating cells, Lacks's health rapidly went downhill. Those same cells that replicated like crazy in test tubes also grew fast — superhero kinds of fast — in Lacks's body.
How many kids did Henrietta have?
By the time Henrietta was 31, they had four kids. Her story took a tragic turn when, at the age of 30, in January 1951, she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of a knot in her stomach. Doctors quickly diagnosed her with cervical cancer and rushed to save her by literally sewing vials of radium onto her cervix.
What did Harald zur Hausen find?
In the 1980s, a German virologist, Harald zur Hausen, found that HeLa cells contained a dangerous strain of HPV. Scientists later used his research to develop HPV vaccines, lowering cases of HPV in teenage girls by nearly 66 percent. That's great for teenage girls, since being one is hard enough without HPV.
What ethical questions did HeLa cells raise?
The use of HeLa cells has also brought up ethical questions about the treatment of patients and informed consent. According to the Society for History Education, surgeons took samples of Henrietta Lacks's cells without her knowledge or consent, a common practice in the '50s, especially at Johns Hopkins, where poor African-American patients were given free health care with the unspoken condition that their bodies could be used for medical research during treatment. The field of biomedical ethics didn't exist yet, and there were few laws to protect Lacks's rights.
Why are HeLa cells used in medical research?
Medical research and biological study could finally be combined. HeLa cells were also used to study how human cells would react in extreme circumstances. Scientists have exposed HeLa cells to zero-gravity conditions, extreme heat, and nuclear fission, which are, again, pretty hard to test (ethically) on living humans.
How did Lacks' cells help us?
Let's focus on the good things first. Lacks's cells made all sorts of new experiments and research possible. For the first time, researchers were able to study the live human body without having to tamper with an actual live human, a big boon to us living humans. Researchers could study cell division, look at how viruses interacted with cells, and expose the cells to diseases in order to research the results — something they'd never be able to do inside a human body. Medical research and biological study could finally be combined.
Who is Henrietta Lacks?
The story begins with Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer from Virginia who reported to Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 with complaints of a “knot in her womb” and abnormal bleeding following the birth of her fifth child.
When did Henrietta Lacks learn about HeLa cells?
The Lacks’ family first learned about HeLa cells in the 1970s, when a scientist contacted the family to request their blood samples and other genetic materials.
Who was Henrietta's physician?
During the course of her treatment, Henrietta’s physician, Dr. George Gey, received a sample of her cells. Dr. Gey incorporated the cells into his research, which involved an ongoing search for “immortal” cells, or cells that would continuously divide and grow after removal from a patient.
When was the HeLa cell published?
In 1976 , Science Magazine published the article Genetic Characteristics of the HeLa Cell. Without seeking consent from the Lacks family, the article contained private information about the genetic markers contained in the DNA of Henrietta and her family members.