Henrietta Lacks’ Immortal Impact On Medical Research
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The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement with a biotech company accused of profiting off her “immortal” cell line. Before Lacks died of cancer in 1951, doctors took some of her cells without her or her family’s consent, and they’ve been used in medical research ever since. The Lacks family says it has waited 70 years for justice. CBS News Streaming Network is the premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations, available free to everyone with access to the Internet. The CBS News Streaming Network is your destination for breaking news, live events and original reporting locally, nationally and around the globe. Launched in November 2014 as CBSN, the CBS News Streaming Network is available live in 91 countries and on 30 digital platforms and apps, as well as on CBSNews.com and Paramount+, in the video published on Aug. 1, 2023, by CBS News, as “Henrietta Lacks’ family settles lawsuit after cells used for countless medical breakthroughs“, below:
For more details about Henrietta Lacks, please refer to the excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951)[1] was an African-American woman[4] whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line[A] and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day.[6]
Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1951. These cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey, who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still used for medical research.[7] As was then the practice, no consent was required to culture the cells obtained from Lacks’s treatment. Neither she nor her family were compensated for the extraction or use of the HeLa cells.
Even though some information about the origins of HeLa’s immortalized cell lines was known to researchers after 1970, the Lacks family was not made aware of the line’s existence until 1975. With knowledge of the cell line’s genetic provenance becoming public, its use for medical research and for commercial purposes continues to raise concerns about privacy and patients’ rights.
Consent issues and privacy concerns
Neither Henrietta Lacks nor her family gave her physicians permission to harvest her cells. At that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought.[40] The cells were used in medical research and for commercial purposes.[26][1] In the 1980s, family medical records were published without family consent. A similar issue was brought up in the Supreme Court of California case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California in 1990. The court ruled that a person’s discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialized.[41]
In March 2013, researchers published the DNA sequence of the genome of a strain of HeLa cells. The Lacks family discovered this when the author Rebecca Skloot informed them.[38] There were objections from the Lacks family about the genetic information that was available for public access. Jeri Lacks Whye, a grandchild of Henrietta Lacks, said to The New York Times, “the biggest concern was privacy—what information was actually going to be out there about our grandmother, and what information they can obtain from her sequencing that will tell them about her children and grandchildren and going down the line.” That same year another group working on a different HeLa cell line’s genome under National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, submitted it for publication. In August 2013, an agreement was announced between the family and the NIH that gave the family some control over access to the cells’ DNA sequence found in the two studies along with a promise of acknowledgement in scientific papers. In addition, two family members will join the six-member committee that will regulate access to the sequence data.[E][38]
In October 2021, Lacks’s estate filed a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for profiting from the HeLa cell line without Lacks’s consent,[43][44] asking for “the full amount of [Thermo Fisher’s] net profits”.[45] On July 31, 2023, Thermo Fisher Scientific settled with the Lacks family under undisclosed terms.[46]
Henrietta Lacks died 62 years ago, but her cells — known as HeLa — live on through scientific research, having led to world-changing medical advances for decades. Margaret Warner talks to Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health about a new agreement made with the Lacks’ family over control of her DNA legacy, in the video published on Aug 8, 2013, by PBS NewsHour, as “Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Impact on Medical Research“, below:
Author Rebecca Skloot and Harvard Law School Professor Glenn Cohen discuss the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died from cervical cancer in the early 1950s. During the course of her treatment, Henrietta’s tissue samples were taken and then cultivated in a laboratory. For the first time, scientists cultivated an immortal human cell line which dramatically changed science and medicine forever, in the video published on April 19, 2017, by Harvard Online, as “Introduction to Henrietta Lacks with author Rebecca Skloot“, below:
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a black woman from Baltimore, USA, died of cancer. However, cells taken from her body without her knowledge continued to grow and multiply even after her death. They became the first ‘immortalised human cell line’ and changed medical science forever. HeLa cells have helped to create cancer treatments, vaccines and have even furthered our understanding of space travel. Now, 100 years on from Henrietta’s birth, her immortal cells are helping researchers develop a Covid-19 vaccine, in the video published on Oct 30, 2020, by BBC Reel, as “Henrietta Lacks: The ‘immortal ‘cells that changed the world – BBC REEL“, below:
Henrietta Lacks’ story is one of injustice, with the vast contribution she made to science hidden from the world for many years. While she sought treatment for her cancer, researchers took biopsies from her body without her knowledge or consent. The cells they took, known as HeLa cells, subsequently became the first “immortal” cell line – meaning they are the only cells which have continued to live outside the human body and replicate. “WHO’s goal is to eliminate cervical cancer, which means the innovations created with Henrietta Lacks’ cells must be made available equitably to all women and girls. We look forward to working with the Lacks family to raise awareness on cervical cancer and advance racial equity in health and science,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). On 13 October 2021, Dr Tedros welcomed the Lacks Family for a special dialogue at WHO headquarters in Geneva, where Henrietta Lacks was posthumously awarded. One year later, WHO appointed Henrietta Lacks’ son Lawrence Lacks, Sr., and his granddaughters, Victoria Baptiste and Veronica Robinson; and Alfred Lacks Carter, Jr., Henrietta Lacks’ grandson, as WHO Goodwill Ambassadors for Cervical Cancer Elimination. The appointment recognizes their efforts to champion cervical cancer prevention and to preserve the memory of Henrietta Lacks, who died from cervical cancer in 1951, in the video published on Nov 23, 2022, by World Health Organization (WHO), as “Cervical cancer: the legacy of Henrietta Lacks“, below:
The family of Henrietta Lacks has filed a lawsuit against biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific for making billions in profit from the “HeLa” cell line. Henrietta Lacks was an African American patient at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Doctors kept her tissue samples without her consent for experimental studies while treating her for cervical cancer in 1951. Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers for the case, filed 70 years after her death, calls Henrietta Lacks a “cornerstone of modern medicine,” as her cells have since played a part in cancer research, the polio vaccine and even COVID-19 vaccines. Ron Lacks, author and grandson of Henrietta Lacks, laments the fact that the family was never notified when his grandmother died, and that part of what motivates the lawsuit is to ensure “no other family should ever go through this.” in the video published on Oct 8, 2021, by Democracy Now!, as “Family of Henrietta Lacks Files Lawsuit over Use of Stolen Cells, Lambasts Racist Medical System“, below:
On Friday, February 26, 2021, the Office of Health Equity and Community Affairs and the Program in Medical Ethics, Humanities, and Law at WMed hosted a traveling exhibit about the life of the late Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. The event included an ethics discussion led by Tyler Gibb, JD, PhD, co-chief for the Program in Medical Ethics, Humanities, and Law, as well as a research discussion led by Thomas L. Rothstein, MD, PhD, chair of the medical school’s Department of Investigative Medicine, in the video published on March 16, 2021, by wmumed, as “Hela Cells: The Legacy and Misappropriation of Henrietta Lacks“, below:
Cancer researcher, Chris Tse, Ph.D., explains why Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells are considered immortal and how they changed scientific research forever, in the video published on June 1, 2017, by AbbVie, as “HeLa Cells Explained“, below:
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