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HeLa cells 50 years on: the good, the bad and the ugly

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 2, pages 315–319 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

HeLa cells — the first continuous cancer cell line — have been a mainstay of cancer research ever since their isolation from the aggressive glandular cervical cancer of a young woman more than 50 years ago. Knowledge of almost every process that occurs in human cells has been obtained using HeLa cells and the many other cell lines that have since been isolated. So why does fraud an ignorance surround the use of these and other human cancer cell lines?

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Figure 1: George Gey.
Figure 2

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Institute of Urology, University College London, 67 Riding House Street, London, W1W 7EY, UK

    John R. Masters

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Masters, J. HeLa cells 50 years on: the good, the bad and the ugly. Nat Rev Cancer 2, 315–319 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc775

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