In celebration of Black History Month, Texas Children’s Medical Staff Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity is shining a light on African American pioneers in medicine. For our final installment, we salute Henrietta Lacks, whose cells became the first human cell line; Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., the first African American to complete a spacewalk and the first to conduct a telemedicine conference from space; Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman astronaut and the first African American woman in space; and Dr. Jane Cooke-Wright, the Black woman oncologist known as “The Mother of Chemotherapy.”
In the United States, Black women are more likely than White women to die from cervical, breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers – and the statistics are startling:
- Black women with cervical cancer are nearly 10 percent more likely to die when compared with White women after adjustment for socioeconomic status and stage at diagnosis.
- Among women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer, Black women have twice the risk of death. More than one-third of that excess risk is attributable to differences in health insurance coverage.
- When compared with White women, non-Hispanic Black women with ovarian cancer have consistently worse survival both by time interval and disease stage, despite very similar distribution of cancer stages.
- The mortality risk of endometrial cancer is 55 percent higher for Black women than White women.
The driving factors behind these persistent disparities? For one, Black women are less likely to be diagnosed with early-stage disease. However, the basis for later-stage diagnosis appears to be a result of improper evaluation rather than biologic cause. At least one study also reported that Black women were less likely to receive guideline-concordant care, which was in turn associated with higher odds of advanced stage of disease at diagnosis.
In honor of the advancements that have been made in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment, we recognize the Black woman whose cells have supported advances in most fields of medical research – including research on space missions – and two physician-astronauts who conducted research in space.
The Legend of Henrietta Lacks
In 1951, a young mother of five named Henrietta Lacks visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Upon examination, renowned gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones discovered a large, malignant tumor on her cervix. Lacks began undergoing radium treatments for her cervical cancer, and a sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey’s nearby tissue lab. Neither Lacks nor her family knew or consented to her cells being taken.
Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells for years from all patients who came to Johns Hopkins with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in his lab. What he would soon discover was that Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, her cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
These incredible cells – nicknamed “HeLa” cells, from the first two letters of Henrietta Lacks’ first and last names – became the first human cell line. HeLa cells have been used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. This cell line has contributed to many medical breakthroughs, from research on the effects of zero gravity (they went up in the first space missions) and the development of the polio vaccine, to the study of leukemia, the AIDS virus and cancer worldwide. Many scientific landmarks have used her cells, including cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization.
Lacks ultimately passed away on October 4, 1951 at the age of 31. More than 20 years later, her family finally learned that her cells had been used to fuel medical research that continues to impact the world. Their story and the subsequent controversy over the HeLa cells was captured in the 2010 best-seller, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, which was later adapted into a movie of the same name.
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr.
Born in Temple, Texas, in 1956, Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., became the first African American to complete a spacewalk on February 9, 1995. While at NASA, he conducted research in musculoskeletal physiology and clinical investigations of space adaptation and developed in-flight medical devices to extend astronaut stays in space. On his second flight, he conducted the first telemedicine conference from space with the Mayo Clinic.
Harris earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Houston; a Master of Medical Science degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston; a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston; and a Doctorate of Medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, a National Research Council Fellowship in Endocrinology at the NASA Ames Research Center, and trained as a Flight Surgeon at the Aerospace School of Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base.
Since retiring from NASA, Harris has worked tirelessly to advance STEM education, particularly in underserved communities, and is currently a Texas Medical Center board member.
Source: National Math + Science Initiative
Did you know? Telehealth at Texas Children’s
Texas Children’s has seen tremendous growth in telemedicine over the last year. An average of 1,500-1,600 patient visits are completed each day using audiovisual communication. For some services, more than 95 percent of encounters are by telemedicine, and overall, 15-20 percent of all outpatient encounters for Texas Children’s are completed by telemedicine. Texas Children’s Pediatrics completed its first 100,000 telemedicine in November 2020.
Though hopes were high that telemedicine would reduce or even eliminate barriers to care for disadvantaged populations, significant barriers to access care persist – they’re just different barriers. Types of personal electronic devices, familiarity with technology, internet access, bandwidth capacity and cost, and cultural and language differences all play significant roles.
Texas Children’s eHealth is addressing these barriers and exploring strategies to reduce them with an eHealth Access Equity Committee. Strategies include loaner devices for connecting, remote monitoring technology, providing free WiFi access, creating training in cultural sensitivity for providers, as well as a streamlined and easy to use video-interpretation solution for use in telemedicine visits.
Dr. Mae Jemison
Born on October 17, 1956, Dr. Mae Jemison is the first African American female astronaut and the first African America woman in space aboard the Endeavour in September 1992.
After graduating from high school at just 16 years old, Jemison attended Stanford University and earned bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and African American Studies in 1977. She went on to receive her medical degree from Cornell University and served two years in the Peace Corps in West Africa as a staff physician. Her responsibilities there included managing the health care delivery system for the Peace Corps and the U.S. embassies in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In the wake of the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy, Jemison left her private medical practice in Los Angeles and applied to become an astronaut candidate. She was one of 15 chosen from a pool of 2,000 applicants in 1988. She completed the intensive training, eventually being assigned to STS-47, a Spacelab Life Sciences mission. On this 8-day flight, she served as a science mission specialist and carried out experiments on the effects of space motion sickness, frog fertilization in space and bone loss during spaceflight.
After leaving NASA, Jemison went on to teach at Dartmouth College, formed a company that researches advanced technologies, is an active public speaker, and continues to urge students to pursue their dreams and pursue math and science.
Source: Smithsonian Institute
Dr. Jane Cooke Wright (November 30, 1919 – February 19, 2013)
Born on Nov. 30, 1919, Dr. Jane Cooke Wright grew up in Harlem, N.Y. Her father, Dr. Louis Wright, was one of the first Black graduates of Harvard University Medical School and established the Cancer Research Center at Harlem Hospital. Wright studied art at Smith College before changing her major to pre-med, and later received a full academic scholarship from New York Medical College, where she was one of few Black students. She graduated with honors in 1945.
Wright interned at Bellevue Hospital from 1945 to 1946, serving nine months as an assistant resident in internal medicine. After a six-month leave from residency at Harlem Hospital for the birth of her first child, she returned to complete her training as chief resident. In January 1949, Wright was hired as a staff physician with New York City Public Schools and continued as a visiting physician at Harlem Hospital. After six months she left the school position to join her father, director of the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital.
At the time, chemotherapy was still mostly experimental. Her father had already redirected the focus of research to investigating anti-cancer chemicals, and together they began experimenting with these chemicals in mice. While Louis worked in the lab, his daughter performed patient trials. In 1949, the two began testing a new chemical on human leukemias and cancers of the lymphatic system. Several patients who participated in the trials went into remission. Following her father’s death in 1952, Wright was appointed head of the Cancer Research Foundation.
In 1955, Wright became associate professor of Surgical Research at New York University and director of Cancer Chemotherapy Research at New York University Medical Center and its affiliated Bellevue and University hospitals. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke. In 1967, Wright was named professor of surgery, head of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department, and associate dean at New York Medical College, her alma mater. She was then the highest-ranking Black woman in a medical institution in the U.S, and became renowned throughout the country for her breakthrough research.
While pursuing research at New York Medical College, Wright implemented a new comprehensive program to study stroke, heart disease, and cancer, and created another program to instruct doctors in chemotherapy. By 1971, she became the first woman president of the New York Cancer Society, was a founding member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and served on the board of directors of the American Cancer Society, New York. During her 40-year career, she published more than 100 papers and led delegations of cancer researchers to Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Sources: American Association for Cancer Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine
Did you know? Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers
Cancer is the leading cause of death in children, affecting more than 15,000 children and adolescents annually. Survival rates for children with cancer have increased substantially over the past 50 years, primarily due to “bench-to-bedside” translation of research advances and treatment of children on clinical trials. Because of these treatment advances, the number of adults classified as “childhood cancer survivors” continues to grow.
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers care for one of the largest and most diverse patient populations, representing every form of childhood cancer. As one of the nation’s most comprehensive pediatric cancer centers, we have more than 60 years of experience caring for the most rare and complex cases. Our patients have access to the most innovative treatments, research and clinical trial networks in the world, and the cancer center has more than 250 active clinical trials available.
The cancer center also has 135,000 square feet of laboratory space with 47 labs developing novel treatments for all pediatric cancers. Development of these cutting-edge strategies is a high priority for our unique Developmental Therapeutics and cutting edge Cell and Gene Therapy and Cancer Genomics Programs, which have become leaders in the study of new treatment strategies for childhood cancer.
