Modern medicine could be built on lies, damned lies and statistics...

Modern medicine stands on the shoulders of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who, in January 1951, presented to Johns Hopkins Hospital for cervical cancer treatment because it was one of the few places in Baltimore that would treat African American patients.

Lacks died shortly after but not before physicians, without her knowledge or consent, harvested a biopsy of her tumour. When researchers cultured the cancerous cells, they found something astonishing: the cells kept replicating.
HeLa cells were the first-ever cell line established outside the body and have underpinned countless medical discoveries since 1951.

The sample became the first “immortalised” cell line: collections of cells grown outside the body. These cells would become the bedrock of medical research. Before a medicine becomes a miracle drug, for example, it’s tested on cell lines such as this to gather evidence for safety and efficacy before the research progresses to animal or human trials.

Named “HeLa” from Lacks’ first and last names, that first cell line has been fundamental to the scientific study of polio, HIV, cancer, blood disorders, ebola and COVID-19.

Many other cell lines representing hundreds of cancers and tissues have been established since HeLa.

But when a Sydney undergraduate began poking through academic papers depending on this cellular research, she discovered something shocking: for a number of cell lines referenced in cancer research and drug discovery papers, and even vaunted scientific literature reviews, there was no evidence at all that the cells had ever existed.

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Voodoo said:

It's not just medicine. Throw in All of "Science".

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