The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The narrative returns to 1951. After visiting Hopkins, Henrietta gets a diagnosis: she has a type of cervical cancer called epidermoid carcinoma. “Carcinoma” refers to the type of cell from which the cancer has formed; in this case, from the cells that cover and protect the surface of the cervix. During Henrietta’s treatment, both Dr. Jones and his supervisor, Dr. Richard TeLinde, are involved in a debate over what illnesses could be categorized as cervical cancer and how to treat them.

There are two types of cervical cancers: invasive, which means it has penetrated through the surface of the cervix, and noninvasive, also called “carcinoma in situ,” which instead grows smoothly over the surface of the cervix. In 1951, most oncologists believed that invasive carcinoma was deadly and that noninvasive was not, so they treated the former aggressively but essentially ignored the latter. TeLinde, however, asserted that carcinoma “in situ” is an early stage of invasive carcinoma.

Diagnosing carcinoma in situ had become possible only about a decade earlier, in 1941, due to the innovations of a researcher named George Papanicolaou, who had developed a test called the Pap smear. Before this test, early stage cervical cancer was not discoverable, and by the time a woman began to show symptoms, it was too late. During this time, 15,000 women a year were dying of cervical cancer; the Pap smear could decrease the death rate by over 70%. TeLinde was working to document what was and wasn’t cervical cancer, and to persuade surgeons to do biopsies on women before removing their uteruses, while also convincing the medical community of the dangers of carcinoma in situ.

Recently, TeLinde had presented his carcinoma in situ theory to a conference of pathologists and had faced a hugely negative reaction. His response was to review “all medical records and biopsies from patients who’d been diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer at Hopkins in the past decade” to see how many cases had started out as in situ. As with most researchers at the time, TeLinde would use poor patients from the charity wards for research without telling them, believing that this could act as a form of payment.

For tissue samples, TeLinde went to George Gey, Hopkins’ head of tissue culture research. Along with his wife Margaret Gey, George Gey had been attempting to grow cancer cells in culture (outside the human body) in order to determine cancer’s cause and find a cure. The Geys’ ultimate goal was to grow the first immortal human cells, ones which would divide forever. In 1943, a group of researchers had done so with mouse cells, fueling George Gey’s obsession. He and TeLinde arranged a trade: TeLinde would provide Gey with cervical cancer tissue, and Gey would attempt to grow it.

On February 5, 1951, Dr. Jones calls Henrietta to tell her the results of her biopsy. Henrietta tells no one in her family about the news, but asks her husband to take her to Hopkins the next day. She assures Day and the children that nothing is wrong. In the hospital, Henrietta signs a form giving Hopkins the right to perform “any operative surgical procedures…that they may deem necessary.” She follows a nurse into a “colored” ward, where Howard Jones and his helpers test “her urine, her blood, her lungs.” After two nights, Henrietta is prepared for radiation treatment, the usual method for combating cervical cancer.

Radium destroys living cells, and killed many who took it when it was marketed as a cure-all in the 1800s. It also, however, kills cancer cells. Hopkins had used radium since the early 20th century, following the lead of Dr. Howard Kelly, who had learned about radium from the famous Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, the couple that had discovered radium and its use against cancer. By the 1940s, researchers had found that radium was safer and more effective than surgery when it came to treating cervical cancer.

ForHenrietta’streatment, doctors use glass tubes of radium. They were sewn into containers called Brack plaques, named after a Hopkins doctor who invented them. He later died of cancer, probably from being exposed to radium, as did a resident of Dr. Kelly’s.

The surgeon on duty, a man named Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr., dilates the unconscious Henrietta’s cervix to treat her tumor. Although Henrietta has no idea that her cervix is going to be sampled, Wharton cuts out two pieces of tissue: one cancerous, and one healthy. He then inserts tubes filled with radium into Henrietta’s cervix. After the procedure, Wharton notes that Henrietta seems in “good condition,” and says that he has given her tissue to Dr. George Gey.

Henrietta’s tissue samples travel to George Gey, who greets them eagerly. His assistants, however, believe that the samples will fail and die just like all the others.