Seventy-five years ago, Henrietta Lacks unknowingly became a pivotal figure in medical research when her cells were harvested without her consent at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Lacks, an African American woman suffering from cervical cancer, passed away in 1951, but her cells, known as HeLa cells, became instrumental in numerous medical breakthroughs, including vaccines for polio and HPV, and treatments for HIV/AIDS, leukemia, and influenza.
The legacy of Lacks’s “immortal” cells continues to influence scientific research today. Local researchers are reflecting on the profound impact of HeLa cells on their work, which has underscored the importance of ethical standards in medical research. “To the modern researcher, the fact that cells were taken and established into an immortalized, forever-growing cell line from a patient that didn’t know that happened is astounding,” stated Cigall Kadoch, an associate professor of pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.
Lacks’s story gained significant attention with the publication of Rebecca Skloot’s book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” in 2010. More recently, her family reached a confidential settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2023, claiming the company profited from a racist medical system. Earlier this month, they settled with Novartis, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company.
Born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia, Lacks worked on a tobacco farm and married David “Day” Lacks in 1941. She first visited Johns Hopkins on February 1, 1951, complaining of a “knot” in her cervix. The hospital was among the few that offered public medical care to Black patients, but it was also common practice to use these patients for research without their knowledge. After undergoing a biopsy, Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Not wanting to distress her family, she initially kept her diagnosis a secret.
During treatment, samples from both her tumor and healthy cervical tissue were taken for Dr. George Gey to culture in his lab. Lacks’s cells were labeled “HeLa,” derived from the first two letters of her first and last names. Gey quickly discovered that her cancerous cells were not only surviving but also replicating at an unprecedented rate. This breakthrough led to the establishment of the first immortal human cell line, which Gey began sharing with scientists worldwide, though Lacks’s name remained unmentioned.
The impact of HeLa cells on medical research has been profound. Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center, credits much of her research on HIV to the fundamental work done with HeLa cells. Assoumou is currently working on disseminating a long-acting HIV medication, Sunlenca, recently approved by the FDA. She emphasizes the critical role HeLa cells played in understanding the infection mechanisms of HIV.
“Understanding the mechanism that helped us later develop drugs that enable me to help my patients live longer and happier lives, a lot of the underpinnings were related to a lot of that fundamental work using HeLa cells,” Assoumou noted.
Kadoch, whose research lab directly works with HeLa cells, highlighted advancements in gene sequencing that have allowed researchers to better understand the genetic roots of various cancers. “Cancer is not one disease, but a very diverse, heterogeneous collection of many different diseases,” she explained.
Despite the successes, challenges arise in establishing cell lines for all cancer types, as human cells behave differently under varying lab conditions. “We often say no two HeLa cell lines from two different labs are the same,” Kadoch added, noting that cells can become damaged or altered during replication.
The story of Henrietta Lacks has spurred a reevaluation of ethical standards regarding informed consent in scientific research. Assoumou has co-developed a course at Boston Medical Center aimed at improving understanding of clinical trials for medical interpreters, focusing on historical medical mistrust exemplified by Lacks’s case and the Tuskegee syphilis study. The course aims to strengthen advocacy for patients with limited English proficiency.
“We’ve learned and developed procedures and practices to help us be better researchers,” Assoumou remarked. Kadoch stressed that informed consent is vital for ensuring diversity among research participants. “We’ll do a better job for our worldly effort against cancer if we understand the heterogeneous repertoire of individuals that get these diseases,” she stated.
Kadoch believes many researchers remain unaware of the full story behind HeLa cells. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing the contributions of patients and their families to ongoing research. “Know what you work with, and where it came from,” she advised.
The legacy of Henrietta Lacks serves as a reminder of the ethical imperatives in medical research and the lives intertwined with scientific progress. Her contributions, though unrecognized during her life, continue to resonate within the medical community and beyond.
