Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells were taken from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. No consent was required to culture the cells obtained by George Otto Gey, who created the cell line known as HeLa. The cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day.
About Henrietta Lacks in brief
Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line. HeLa is the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions. Lacks’ cancer cells were taken from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. No consent was required to culture the cells obtained by George Otto Gey, who created the cell line known as HeLa. Neither Lacks nor her family were compensated for their extraction or use. With knowledge of HeLa’s genetic provenance becoming public, its use for medical research and for commercial purposes continues to raise concerns about privacy and patients’ rights. The Lacks family was not made aware of the line’s existence until 1975, when information about its origins was known to researchers after 1970. The cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day. The HeLa line is still used for medicalResearch and commercial purposes to this day. For more information, visit www.hela.org or go to www.johns Hopkins.org. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
For support on suicide matters call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255 or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/. For support in the United States, go to the National suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-877-788-7457 or click here. For help in the Middle East, call the Salvation Army on 877-457-7255 or visit the Middle East Samaritans on their website. For information on the United Nations, visit the World Health Organization (UN) or The World Health Organization on its Website. For more information on HIV/AIDS, visit http://www www.un.org or the World Health Institute on the U.N. for-AIDS and AIDS in the Middle East. For more info on AIDS, visit: www.www.u.worldhealth.org/aids/AIDS/factsheets/factsheet/fact sheet/fact-sheet/Fact-sheet.html. For more details on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on AIDS and other diseases, visit www.nih.gov/issues/cancers/cirrhosis/cervical-disease/cyscopy/c-dysplastic-endometriosis.html/. For more about the National Institute of Health on AIDS (NICE) oncology/cocaine/cancercare/cimetry/ciscline/cicare.html?cid=1.
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This page is based on the article Henrietta Lacks published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
