The Immortal HeLa Cell

The legend of Henrietta Lacks

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks walked into the Baltimore Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was concerned about abnormal bleeding and a painful nodule she felt near her lady parts.

Mrs. Lacks’ alarming symptoms were just one of her worries. As an African American woman, she was also unwelcome in most healthcare facilities. John Hopkins and its “public colored ward” was the rare exception.

Still, during her treatment, Mrs. Lacks would be subject to questionable medical service. This is, perhaps, the result of belonging to both marginalized race and socioeconomic classes, as well as an overall lack of regulation in hospitals.

At Johns Hopkins, Mrs. Lacks received a biopsy from the gynecology department to look into her complaints.

During a biopsy, tissue samples are extracted from a patient. Afterward, the sample is analyzed to pinpoint exactly what is wrong. Oftentimes, this can be done with the help of a microscope to examine samples at a cellular level.

Mrs. Lacks’ biopsy results revealed that her “nodule” was actually a cervical tumor.

Less than one year prior to Mrs. Lacks’ hospital visit, she had given birth to a baby boy. Her doctors did not detect the tumor on delivery day or her follow-up appointment that occurred six weeks later.

Notably, cervical tumors aren’t exactly “common” with pregnancy. In a 2019 publication, the Cancer Medicine Journal claimed that less than 3% of all women diagnosed with cervical cancer were pregnant or postpartum.

Additionally, much less was known about cervical tumors during the early 1950s.

Today, cervical complications can be caught early on with a Pap smear. After turning 21 years old, most women get regular Pap smear screenings at three-year intervals.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Lacks, Pap smears had just been invented and were not yet widely practiced.

Mrs. Lacks underwent a few more standard tests and promptly began a series of radium treatments, also conducted at John Hopkins.

During these sessions, a tiny radium-filled tube was inserted into the cervix. Further radium tubes were fastened into cloth pouches, known as “Brack plaques”, on the cervix’s surface.

In terms of quality, the radium treatments Mrs. Lacks were prescribed were actually the cream of the crop. While her procedure probably seems weird to your 21st-century mind, radium treatments were standard during this period. In fact, modern cancer chemotherapies employ similar techniques, although they are generally not so intrusive.

From Mrs. Lacks’ perspective, while she was getting the latest treatments for her condition, it was difficult to deal with the aftermath. Mrs. Lacks reported severe pains after treatments but was still told to go home.

Eventually, despite John Hopkins’ efforts, Mrs. Lacks’ cancer had escalated to the point of no return. She passed away at 31 years old due to the disease.

What makes Mrs. Lacks’ tragic story stand out is Mrs. Lacks herself — or more accurately, her cells.

Unbeknownst to Mrs. Lacks, her radium treatments were not solely administered for relieving her cervical cancer. Just months before her death, Mrs. Lacks’ radium treatment surgeon got involved in a few extracurricular activities and removed a couple of tissue samples from Mrs. Lacks’ cervix.

Interestingly enough, Mrs. Lacks was not specifically “targeted” from the rest of the hospital’s other patients. Truthfully, this practice was quite common across the Johns Hopkins hospital, although patients were uninformed of it. The unspoken belief was that, in return for their medical help, the hospital was entitled to take a few specimens “here and there” for research purposes.

The tissues made their way to a Dr. George Gey, who was in charge of John Hopkins’ tissue culture research. Dr. Gey had a reputation for studying cancers and viruses, but it was difficult to conduct research using tissue samples from a typical patient.

Normally, samples sent to Dr. Gey’s lab would die too quickly, preventing any thorough experimentation.

However, Mrs. Lacks’ cancerous cells were one of a kind! Rather than dying off, Mrs. Lacks cells doubled every 20–24 hours. In other words, because of their longevity and high reproductive rates, Mrs. Lacks’ cells could multiply infinitely. The literally immortal cells were nicknamed HeLa cells, based on the first letters of Mrs. Lacks’ first and last name (Henrietta Lacks).

In the lab and in the medical community, HeLa cells immediately became a hot topic. HeLa cells were the perfect guinea pigs. While they were cancerous cells, they shared enough characteristics with “healthy” cells to act as a test subject.

Most importantly, HeLa cells could be infected with different viruses. From there, scientists could explore how a particular virus worked and look for solutions.

HeLa cells went on to contribute to developing the polio vaccine and continue to expand studies of leukemia, AIDs, cancer, and even how cells change in outer space.

Right now, there are still countless HeLa cells circulating the globe, and her contributions, albeit unconsented, have changed lives.

Morally, the looting of Mrs. Lacks’ body was wrong. Nevertheless, in spite of Mrs. Lacks’ own passing, I am glad that her cells — and her legacy — lives on.

Beharee, Nitish, et al. “Diagnosis and Treatment of Cervical Cancer in Pregnant Women.” NCBI, Cancer Medicine, Sept. 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6745864/.

Etheredge, Laura. “Henrietta Lacks.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 July 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/Henrietta-Lacks.

“Henrietta Lacks Science Must Right a Historical Wrong.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 1 Sept. 2020, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02494-z.

“The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks.” Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henriettalacks/index.html.

“Tracing The ‘Immortal’ Cells Of Henrietta Lacks.” Fresh Air from NPR, 18 March 2011, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/134622044.

Watson, Margot. “How Often Do I Need a Pap Smear?” Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/signature_obgyn/patient_information/ask_expert/gynecology-q-a/how-often-do-I-need-a-pap-smear.html#:~:text=Women%20should%20start%20Pap%20smear,HPV)%20with%20their%20Pap%20smear.