Henrietta Lacks and Immortalized Cancer Cells
Who was Henrietta Lacks?
Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who, in 1951, was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. While being treated, a doctor snipped some of her cells from her cervix. The doctor discovered that the cells could not only be kept alive, but would grow indefinitely. For 60 years her cells have been used in experiments ranging from determining the long-term effects of radiation to testing the live polio vaccine. Her cells were commercialized and have generated millions of dollars in profit for the medical researchers who patented her tissue.
What are immortalized cancer cells?
Immortalized cancer cells are cancer cells that never die, so they never stop dividing. No scientist knows for sure the reason that Henrietta Lacks' cells never stopped dividing. The best guess is that the reason that her cells remained immortal is the ferocity of her tumor, which seems to have been made more virulent by the fact that she also suffered from syphilis.
Who has been affected by Henrietta Lacks?
Henrietta Lacks’ cells have affected every cancer patient diagnosed since her death. The polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping and IVF were made because of tests run on her cells. It enabled scientists to witness cell division and see how viruses behave inside the cells. It also became possible to expose the cells to conditions that wouldn't have been ethical if they were inside a human body – for example, doctors could bombard them with carcinogens, and watch the results.
Why is Henrietta Lacks important?
Henrietta Lacks' cells changed the future of medicine. Some scientists say that if you piled all of her cells ever grown onto a scale, they would weigh over 50 million metric tons, this is insane given how little a single cell weighs. Her cells enabled scientists to run tests that saved countless lives. The polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping and IVF were results of tests done on those cells. Scientists were trying to create a continuously reproducing line of cancer cells for a long time, but Henrietta Lacks’ were unique in that way, and no scientist is 100% sure why.What research is currently being done about immortalized cancer cells?
Henrietta Lacks' cells are still being grown to this day. Her cells allow for countless experiments that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. These experiments have literally saved thousands of lives.
Links
- http://www.npr.org/2010/02/02/123232331/henrietta-lacks-a-donors-immortal-legacy
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/jun/23/henrietta-lacks-cells-medical-advances
This is cool but weird at the same time! It's so interesting that her cells are still being used over 50 years after her death. Have scientists found immortalized cells in other people since Henrietta, or has she been the only case?
ReplyDeleteLacks' cells are the most well-known example. There was a 14 year old boy with T cell leukemia that's cells were found to be immortal. There are also a few examples of other animals with immortal cancer cells. However, immortal cancer cell lines can now be artificially created by scientists. Lacks' cells are by far the largest collection of cells.
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