がんと医療費のこと 藤原 康弘 (四月 2024)
ヘンリエッタラックス、ロレッタプレザント（1920年8月1日、米国バージニア州ロアノーク生まれ、1951年10月4日死去、メリーランド州ボルチモア）、子宮頸がん細胞がHeLa細胞株の起源であるアメリカ人女性、研究に貢献多くの重要な科学的進歩に。
クイズ
有名なアメリカ人の顔：事実かフィクションか？
クラレンス・ダローは有名な19世紀の検察官でした。
1924年に母親が出産で亡くなった後、彼女の父親は10人の子供と一緒にバージニア州クローバーに引っ越しました。このように、ヘンリエッタは祖父によって育てられました。祖父は、別の孫であるヘンリエッタのいとこのデイビッド（デイ）の世話もしていました。ヘンリエッタとデイは1941年4月10日に結婚しました。従兄弟に勇気づけられたデイは、すぐに北にメリーランドに移り、第二次世界大戦によって生み出された需要で活況を呈しているベツレヘムスティールのスパローズポイント製鉄所で働きました。その後すぐに、ヘンリエッタと夫婦の子供たちは、アフリカ系アメリカ人の鉄鋼労働者の多くが住んでいるボルチモア郊外のコミュニティ、ターナーステーションのデイに加わりました。
Before her fifth pregnancy, Henrietta had sensed a “knot” inside her, and worrisome bleeding and evidence of a lump on her cervix several months after giving birth finally sent Henrietta to her doctor. She was referred to the gynecology department at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where in February 1951 a biopsy indicated the presence of a cervical tumour that had been undetected by doctors both at the birth of her son on September 19, 1950, and at a follow-up examination six weeks later.
After further tests, Henrietta received the first of several radium treatments, the standard of care for the day, which involved stitching small glass tubes of the radioactive metal secured in fabric pouches—called Brack plaques—to the cervix. While performing the procedure, the surgeon extracted two small tissue samples: one from Henrietta’s tumour and one from healthy cervical tissue close by. The samples from Henrietta’s cervix were among many extracted for physician George Gey, the head of tissue culture research at Johns Hopkins, who was searching for an “immortal” cell line for use in cancer research. Unlike previous samples, Henrietta’s cancerous cells—called HeLa, from Henrietta Lacks—not only survived but also multiplied at an extraordinary rate. Henrietta herself was unaware that any sample had been taken; at that time it was not uncommon to study patients and their tissues without their knowledge or consent (see Tuskegee syphilis study).
While her cells thrived, Henrietta declined. By September the cancer had spread throughout her body, and early the following month Henrietta died. However, the HeLa cells, famed for their longevity,continued to thrive in culture long after Henrietta’s death. HeLa became a ubiquitous study material, contributing to the development of drugs for numerous ailments, including polio, Parkinson disease, and leukemia. In spite of this, until the 1970s Henrietta’s role was unknown even to her family. In the 21st century Henrietta’s case was an important component in the debate surrounding informed consent from patients for the extraction and use of cells in research. In 2013 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted the Lacks family control over how data on the HeLa cell genome would be used (the genome of a HeLa cell line had been sequenced in full earlier that year). Two members of the Lacks family formed part of the NIH’s HeLa Genome Data Access working group, which reviewed researchers’ applications for access to the HeLa sequence information.
