The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)

In 1951 Henrietta Lacks was treated for cervical cancer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Tissue from her cervical cancer was taken during her care, without her consent, and became the HeLa cell line. These were the first human cells to grow indefinitely in a lab. Her family learned of this only many years after her death.

The film is mostly about what happened decades later. The science writer Rebecca Skloot tries to persuade the Lacks family to talk, and forms an uneasy partnership with Henrietta's daughter Deborah. Deborah swings between hunger for information and fury at another stranger asking questions. They visit Hopkins, see the cells under a microscope, and uncover records about Deborah's institutionalised sister Elsie. Deborah's health buckles under the strain. In the film she dies before the book is published.

Spoilers throughout. Henrietta's death and Deborah's later death are both discussed here.

The film is careful about a fact that makes people uncomfortable. As was standard at the time, her doctors did not ask for consent before using her tissue for research.

That is the whole discomfort. The film shows a common practice of that era, applied to a family who were told almost nothing. A vague phrase like "they took some cells" then curdles into rumour across two generations. Deborah grew up half believing that clones of her mother existed somewhere. The film treats that as a failure of explanation. That is exactly what it was.

Here is the gap this page exists to fill. Viewers leave with a lesson about consent and almost nothing about the disease.

The CDC says long-lasting infection with certain types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the main cause of cervical cancer. Screening and the HPV vaccine can both help prevent it. The CDC says the Pap test looks for precancers, which are cell changes that might become cancer if they are not treated.

NCI says early cervical cancer usually does not cause symptoms, which makes it hard to detect. Symptoms are listed below. See a doctor promptly if you have any of them.

NCI lists these early-stage symptoms when they do appear:

• Vaginal bleeding after sex.
• Vaginal bleeding after the menopause.
• Bleeding between periods, or periods that are heavier or longer than normal.
• Watery vaginal discharge with a strong odour, or discharge containing blood.
• Pelvic pain, or pain during sex.

More advanced disease can add painful bowel movements or rectal bleeding, painful urination or blood in the urine, a dull backache, leg swelling, abdominal pain and fatigue.

Any of these can be caused by other things. They still need to be checked rather than waited out, even after a normal screening result.

The US Preventive Services Task Force gives cervical screening a grade A, its strongest rating. The schedule:

• Ages 21 to 29: cervical cytology, the Pap test, every three years.
• Ages 30 to 65: one of three options. Cytology alone every three years, high-risk HPV testing alone every five years, or HPV testing and cytology together every five years.

The Task Force recommends against screening under 21. It also advises against it after 65, for women who have been screened enough already and are not at high risk. And it advises against screening women who have had the cervix removed by hysterectomy, unless they have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesion or of cervical cancer.

The Task Force has an update of this recommendation in progress, so the schedule may change.

The CDC says HPV vaccines protect against types 16 and 18, which cause most HPV cancers. The vaccine does not cover every type, and it does not treat an infection someone already has. Ask your care team how screening applies to you if you have been vaccinated.

Henrietta herself is nearly a prologue. Her illness and death take minutes. What advanced cervical cancer does is largely left off screen. NCI lists lower back pain, leg swelling, abdominal pain, fatigue, and bowel or urinary problems among advanced-stage symptoms.

Scenes are reordered and characters merged for pace. Skloot's decade of reporting feels like a single season. What the film does hold onto is the physical cost to Deborah of doing this work. It shows that without sentimentality.

There is no advertising on this page and nothing being sold. If the prevention story the film skipped was worth reading, you can help keep it free. Support our work.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a strong film about consent and a silent one about prevention.

Cervical cancer can now often be prevented. Screening looks for cell changes before they become cancer. Vaccination protects against the HPV types behind most HPV cancers. That is the part of her story the film leaves for someone else to say.

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4256075/ (NIH, PubMed Central)
• https://www.cdc.gov/cervical-cancer/about/index.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/cervical-cancer/screening/index.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/vaccines/index.html
• https://www.cancer.gov/types/cervical/symptoms
• https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/cervical-cancer-screening

This page discusses The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for education. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is a judgement of anyone's real medical care. Spotted an error? Please email corrections@cancerexplained.org.