The vast majority of Henrietta Lacks was dead by the Fall of 1951, buried without a tombstone in Halifax County. Only 9 months earlier, she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Cells from her cervical tumor were isolated, grown, and distributed. Due to the ability of some cancer cells to grow and divide without regard for their environment, these immortal cells quickly became a bottomless source of research material (without her consent), and were sent all over the world, and even into space (to determine whether human cells can survive zero gravity). The cells continue to divide today (above, via electron microscopy), in tens of thousands of laboratory incubators, and in such number that I wonder whether their mass now exceeds that of Lacks.
adamjtaylor posted July 7, 2009
