Leroy Jenkins
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thread 1/9
Henrietta Lacks, whose stolen cancer cells changed medicine, is nominated for Congressional Gold Medal
https://www.msn.com/en-us/...
#BlackSpoutible
07:34 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 2/9
Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights attorney Ben Crump & family of Henrietta Lacks — whose cells, known as HeLa cells, were stolen & harvested without her consent in 1950s — called for Lacks to be posthumously honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for her contribution to science & medicine.
07:35 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 3/9
Lacks’s cells were the first human cells to multiply outside the body, and her unknowing contribution to medicine has played a vital role in the polio vaccine, cloning, in vitro fertilization, gene mapping and much more.
07:36 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 4/9
Lacks, a mother of five, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 after a visit to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the few hospitals that treated poor Blacks during the 1950s.
07:37 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 5/9
“They did not treat her for cervical cancer. They butchered her, they put radiation rods inside of her and they stole her cells,” Crump said.

During her visit, a sample of her cancer cells was stolen and sent to a research lab, where doctors discovered that Lacks's cells were unique.
07:37 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 6/9
“They are super-aggressive cells,” Gail Jarvik, professor of medical genetics at the University of Washington, told Yahoo News, adding that they were historic because they were “the first cells to be ‘culturable,’ in other words, to be kept alive.”
07:38 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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A year after her cells were taken, Lacks died from cervical cancer at the age of 31. But over the past 7 decades, her cells have continued to multiply & impact health care.
07:39 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 8/9
“The same aggressiveness with which the cancer killed Henrietta Lacks made these cells easier to grow in a culture situation,” Jarvik said.
07:39 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Leroy Jenkins
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thread 9/9
Every 24 hours Lacks’s cells regenerate, according to Crump, and they have contributed to research for drugs used to treat cancer, HIV, hemophilia, leukemia and Parkinson’s disease.
07:39 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Kennie Goff
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In response to Leroy Jenkins.
If any patient (and her surviving family) deserves such an honor she does. The gifts from her, though taken not given, have benefited all of humanity.
09:04 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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DrMHasOpinions
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In response to Leroy Jenkins.
This is amazing news! (But her family still needs to be paid)
08:36 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Rosetta
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In response to DrMHasOpinions.
Absolutely!
08:44 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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Mindy!!!
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In response to Leroy Jenkins.
Good. Long overdue.
08:35 PM - Jun 14, 2023
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