Who was the gynecologist that excised tissue from Henrietta Lacks? Why did Richard Wesley TeLinde want her cells? How did TeLinde use the cells for research?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard Wesley TeLinde was a well-known gynecologist and the superior of the doctor treating Henrietta Lacks at Johns Hopkins. Dr. TeLinde was interested in the treatment and progression of carcinoma in situ, meaning noninvasive carcinoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn about how Richard Wesley TeLinde’s research interests changed the course of science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Henrietta visited Johns Hopkins, where she was seen by a gynecologist named Howard Jones. Jones discovered in Lacks\u2019s medical history an array of un- or undertreated illnesses, including asymptomatic neurosyphilis and gonorrhea. There was also abnormal vaginal bleeding and blood in Henrietta\u2019s urine after her last two pregnancies.
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Upon examining Henrietta, Jones quickly located the lump, whose color and consistency was unlike any other lesion he\u2019d seen (he described it in his notes as \u201cgrape Jello\u201d) Even though Joseph had been delivered at Hopkins scant months before, no one had noted any sort of cervical abnormality, either upon delivery or at Henrietta\u2019s six-week checkup. Which meant the lump had grown exponentially in just three months<\/strong>. A few days later, Jones received Henrietta\u2019s biopsy results. The pathologists had found Stage 1 epidermoid carcinoma<\/strong>. Coincidentally, Jones and his superior, an internationally renowned gynecologist named Richard Wesley TeLinde, were currently researching cervical cancer. TeLinde had become a controversial figure among gynecologists due to his aggressive treatment of carcinoma in situ, meaning of \u201cnoninvasive\u201d carcinomas, which are carcinomas that grow on the surface of the cervix (carcinomas that penetrate the cervix are \u201cinvasive\u201d). Whereas most gynecologists in the field believed noninvasive carcinomas would stay on the surface of the cervix and remain nonfatal, TeLinde believed cells could become <\/em>invasive from carcinoma in situ, meaning he often treated them by removing the cervix, uterus, and part of the vagina. Part of the reason there was disagreement about how to treat noninvasive carcinoma was that it was a relatively new field. Only ten years before Henrietta Lacks saw Howard Jones, a Greek researcher named George Papanicolaou had developed a test\u2014now known as a Pap smear\u2014that enabled doctors to diagnose carcinoma in situ. Determined to prove the danger of carcinoma in situ, meaning it could morph into invasive carcinoma, Richard Wesley TeLinde embarked on an ambitious study around the time Henrietta first visited Hopkins: He and his team compiled and reviewed the medical records of every Hopkins patient in the past ten years that had been diagnosed with invasive carcinoma to see if noninvasive carcinomas had been present first. Many of the patients in the study were included without their consent: The logic was that patients being treated for free in the public wards\u2014largely African-Americans\u2014\u201cpaid\u201d for their treatment by being available to researchers as subjects (again, without their knowledge)<\/strong>.
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nHopkins: A Hub of Cancer Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeLinde Studies Noninvasive Carcinoma<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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