Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 21 april 2017

Q&A: Could the Henrietta Lacks case happen today?

MALCOLM RITTER sity bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn. SO WELL?
AP Science Writer IF A SPECIMEN LEADS TO A Researchers proposed a
NEW YORK (AP) — What PRODUCT, DOES THE DO- possible answer in 2013.
happened in the 1951 case NOR HAVE A RIGHT TO Virtually all cases of cervi-
of Henrietta Lacks, and SHARE IN THE PROFITS? cal cancer are caused by
could it happen again to- Generally not, because the infection with human papil-
day? consent form for donation lomavirus , which inserts its
The story of the om Lacks — or treatment usually waives genetic material into a hu-
who never gave permission any such legal right. man cell’s DNA. Scientists
for their use. WHAT WAS SO SPECIAL who examined the DNA of
A look at woman who un- ABOUT LACKS’ CELLS? HeLa cells suggested that
wittingly spurred a scientific Until they came along, happened in a place that
bonanza made for a best- whenever human cells strongly activated a can-
selling book in 2010. On Sat- were put in a lab dish, they cer-promoting gene. That
urday, it returns in an HBO would die immediately or might explain both why
film with Oprah Winfrey reproduce only a few times. Lacks’ cancer was so ag-
portraying Lacks’ daughter This undated microscope image made available by the Na- Her cells, by contrast, could gressive and why the cells
Deborah. Cells taken from tional Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research shows just- be grown indefinitely. They grow so robustly in a lab
Henrietta Lacks have been divided HeLa cells. were “perpetual, ever- dish.
widely used in biomedical Associated Press lasting, death-defying, or DID EVERYBODY ALWAYS
research. They came from grow continuously in the Robert Klitzman of Colum- whatever other word you KNOW THE ORIGIN OF THE
a tumor sample taken frthe laboratory. So the surgeon bia University in New York. want to use to describe im- CELLS?
case: treating Lacks shaved a WHAT ARE THE RULES NOW mortal,” as Dr. Francis Col- No. Lacks was named pub-
___ dime-sized piece of tissue IN THE U.S.? lins, director of the U.S. Na- licly only in 1971, by an ar-
HOW DID DOCTORS GET from her tumor for that proj- Specimens intended spe- tional Institutes of Health, ticle in a medical journal.
THE CELLS? ect. Nobody had asked cifically for research can put it. So they provided Her story appeared in some
As the book relates, Lacks Lacks if she wanted to pro- be collected only if the do- an unprecedented stock magazines in the 1970s,
was under anesthesia vide cells for the research. nor gives consent first. of human cells that could and in a 1997 documen-
on an operating table at She died later that year. If cells or tissues are instead be shipped worldwide for tary on BBC. She became
Johns Hopkins Hospital in WAS IT ILLEGAL TO TAKE THE removed for diagnosis and experiments. They quickly famous in 2010 with publi-
Baltimore one day in 1951, CELLS WITHOUT HER PERMIS- treatment, that is consid- became the most popular cation of Rebecca Skloot’s
undergoing treatment for SION? ered part of the patient’s human cells for research, best-selling book, “The Im-
cervical cancer. A hospi- Not at that time. “What general consent for treat- and have been cited in mortal Life of Henrietta
tal researcher had been happened to Henrietta ment. more than 74,000 scientific Lacks.”q
collecting cervical cancer Lacks was commonly But there’s a twist. Once publications.
cells to see if they would done,” says bioethicist Dr. a specimen is no longer HOW HAVE RESEARCHERS
needed for treating the USED THE CELLS?
patient and would other- The so-called “HeLa” cells
wise be discarded, scien- became crucial for key de-
tists can use it for research. velopments in such areas
No further consent is need- as basic biology, under-
ed, as along as information standing viruses and other
identifying the patient as germs, cancer treatments,
the source is removed and in vitro fertilization and de-
the specimen can’t be velopment of vaccines, in-
traced back to the patient, cluding the polio vaccine.
says Johns Hopkins Univer- WHAT MAKES THEM GROW