Kimbo Slice's Blog

Some more info on cancer cells and research (info from NPR interview with Rebecca Skloot):

Cancer cells grow in massive amounts, giving you a virtually endless supply of them while healthy cells may not grow in a culture or reproduce at such rates. Like normal cells, cancer cells can metabolize, create energy, and can get infected by a virus. “The other big thing is that they’re used almost like factories. You can infect them with a virus or various other things that you want to produce, and they’ll grow those viruses in large quantities.” This allows researchers to study various viruses in large quantities, and gives them a good base to start trying to develop a vaccine.

HeLa cells were “essential” for developing vaccines for polio, as well as drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza and Parkinson’s disease. HeLa cells were actually taken up into space on the first space mission so that scientists could study the affect of zero gravity on human cells. HeLa cells have been an important part of medical research.

At the time when Henrietta Lacks was going to Johns Hopkins hospital, typical cancer treatment of the times was a radiation treatment. The radiation treatment was done by literally sewing tubes of radioactive material (radium) directly to the site of cancer. In Henrietta Lacks’ case, the radioactive tubes were sewn directly onto her cervix. Skloot says, “first, they would stick a few tubes up inside the cervix, and then they would sew the pouches full of these tubes to the outside, and they would leave them there for a few days, just sort of emitting radioactive material inside of you.” Thinking about anyone using this method today might make one cringe, but at the time, it was considered “top of the line” treatment. It was suppose to burn off the cancer and you were suppose to be good as new. Unfortunately in Henrietta’s case, the radioactive material inside of her did not burn off the tumors and she kept coming back to the hospital to receive more treatment, then they would send her home, only to find her back. She finally refused to go home since the treatment was obviously not working, but by this time, her cancer had gotten so out of control there was nothing the doctors could do to save her.

An interesting thing I didn’t think about before was that Henrietta was African-American in the “Jim Crow era”. Hopkins was the only hospital around that would provide care for African-Americans. Many other hospitals would not have given Henrietta treatment for her cancer. More on this coming soon.

This is the transcript of the report that I heard on NPR about HeLa cells.

And you can listen to the story too if you would like.

I have been waiting three weeks for my book to come and it is finally here!!! I ordered the book that Rebecca Skloot just wrote and it was just published. It was back ordered from Barnes & Nobles which is why it took so long to get thankfully it is in my possession now so I can make super fast progress. Here it is:

There is a section in the middle of the books with a bunch of cool pictures. Hopefully I can scan a few because I have not been able to find very many pictures of Henrietta or her family. There are also some really cool pictures of science labs and pictures of the cells themselves that I would like to put up here so you all can get a better understanding of what these cancer cells look like. I have to say I am pretty pumped about starting this new book and getting some more info on Henrietta Lacks. While I have been waiting, I did obviously find good information, this book just provides more in depth info about Henrietta’s life and more about her family.

Not too long ago I listened to an interesting story on NPR about the HeLa cells. It was Rebecca Skloot who was being interviewed (author of this new book). I am going to post a link with the actual audio recording or a link to the transcript. Maybe both.

Right when this book came out there was a lot of attention on this subject (at least on NPR), and I have not heard much more about it since then. That was maybe a month ago. I am curious as to why there is a lot of hype about it one second, and the next minutes it is just old news. I had never heard of HeLa cells before my mom told me she heard a story on NPR about them, and when people ask me what I am doing for my senior exit project, they have never heard of HeLa cells either. I find it odd that not very many people know about something that seems to be a revolutionary discovery. Plus, they have been around for more than twenty years!

Oh well. That’s why I’m here. To tell you all about them.

The author of “The Ghost Map”, which is the book that I am currently reading, does a much better job explaining cholera, naturally.

An additional branch of this topic I want to pursue is looking at vaccines. I am currently reading a book about the Broad Street cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and I have read a book about the Influenza outbreak of 1918. These are two of the greatest pandemics seen in the world’s history. Both wiping out an outrageous number of people in a relatively short amount of time. Having background information about these illnesses, I am thinking/hoping that I can find a connection between at least one (but hopefully both) of the illnesses and the HeLa cells.

Since HeLa cells have been used to help develop vaccines, I am wondering if A) HeLa cells have been used to try and develop a vaccine for cholera (since as far as I know there is not a vaccine), and B) Were HeLa cells used to help develop the Flu vaccine?  And C) Have HeLa cells been used in any other way in treating either cholera or influenza?

For this aspect of my project I will start with some basic information about cholera and influenza as well as their outbreaks. Some basic questions that go along with any outbreak are: When did the sickness first appear? Where did it appear? Who was affected? How many people were killed? Why did it get so out of control? How did it resolve? etc.

I’ll start with cholera. It’s scientific name is Vibrio Cholerae. The cholera outbreak of 1854 was not the first time London had seen the disease. It had infected a good number of people earlier in European history, but the severity of the disease was not nearly as bad as it was in 1854. Once cholera had infected its first victims, the entire city of London would be infected at unimaginable rates. The reason that the disease spread so fast was because at the time, London did not have an effective waste management system. The entire city was sitting on top of their own waste.  All human waste was dumped into underground cesspools that eventually became unmaintainable with the drastic increase in population. When it comes down to it, the reason for the cholera outbreak was overpopulation in London, and lack of a logical waste management system. Almost all water supplies were heavily contaminated by waste, that later, once the outbreak was prominent, were contaminated by the cholera bacteria itself. The reason that so many people died was because no one knew how to cure cholera. Doctors who came up with experimental treatments really had no idea how to cure the disease. The cure was really quite basic though. Cholera causes severe dehydration, and the bacteria causes the body to expel all fluids. Simply re hydrating would have  been the best thing for a person who was suffering from cholera. Unfortunately, finding pure water at this time would have been a challenge. A person who was suffering from cholera would typically survive for 48 hours (from the instant of infection). An estimated 10-20,000 people would die from this per month.

To be continued… I am starting to wonder if this addition is going to be too much… we’ll see.

Alright. It is time to get going on this Senior Exit Project. Missing school is never advantageous. But now that I have an idea of what I will pursue, I can finally get caught up. The idea: HeLa Cells. I did not hear about what HeLa cells were until about a week ago whilst listening to NPR. Let me introduce you to Henrietta Lacks (HeLa coming from her name). I will explain more about what I want to accomplish later, but first, I want to provide a little background info about Lacks, and what these HeLa cells are.

So, Henrietta Lacks was born in Virginia in 1920 and grew up on a plantation. Eventually she moved to Baltimore with her husband. In 1951 Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining about stomach pain. That pain turned out to be cervical cancer which she died from in October later that year. While doctors at Johns Hopkins couldn’t find a cure for Lacks’ cancer, they did however discover cells that would grow and survive indefinitely in a culture. While Henrietta was in the hospital receiving treatment, doctors took samples of her cells (both healthy cells and cancerous cells). This was a standard procedure doctors did in order to study the disease’s progression. Lacks had no knowledge that the doctors took these samples. Lacks’ normal cells died after a few days, as expected, but the cancerous cells continued to grow. Which they would continue to do to this day. Lacks’ cells are still growing and multiplying today. Pretty astonishing. What’s the point you might ask? Well Lacks’ cells were a huge component in developing the polio vaccine. Not only that, but they are used today to test theories of cures to diseases. Main Point: Henrietta Lacks’ cells, discovered in 1951, are still helping medicine today. The extent to which these cells can be used is unbelievable.

I thought that this issue was not only extremely interesting, but I also think that not very many people were aware of these cells and what they have accomplished or what they have yet to accomplish. I want to know what they are used for now, how they have helped us (general population) since the polio vaccination, who has access to use them in research, how has this affected the descendants of Henrietta Lacks, the controversy that accompanies this issue, and what might happen in the future. I hope that all made sense. Basically I just want to know more about Henrietta and her famous, “immortal” cells.

Rebecca Skloot’s recent book  has brought this issue up and has brought up many good questions about these cells. This book will be a useful source in my research and I plan on using parts of it.

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