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Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of an aggressive adenocarcinoma of the cervix. A tissue biopsy obtained for diagnostic evaluation yielded additional tissue for Dr George O. Gey's tissue culture laboratory at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, Maryland). The cancer cells, now called HeLa cells, grew rapidly in cell culture and became the first human cell line. HeLa cells were used by researchers around the world. However, 20 years after Henrietta Lacks' death, mounting evidence suggested that HeLa cells contaminated and overgrew other cell lines. Cultures, supposedly of tissues such as breast cancer or mouse, proved to be HeLa cells. We describe the history behind the development of HeLa cells, including the first published description of Ms Lacks' autopsy, and the cell culture contamination that resulted. The debate over cell culture contamination began in the 1970s and was not harmonious. Ultimately, the problem was not resolved and it continues today. Finally, we discuss the philosophical implications of the immortal HeLa cell line.

The involvement of Dr. Richard Mattingly, Editor of Obstetrics & Gynecology between 1972 and 1985, in the publication of an article on carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the cervix, facilitated exposure of an unethical study into the natural history of CIS of the cervix (now termed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3) by Dr. Herbert Green. The object of Dr. Green's study was to verify his premise that CIS was not a precursor of invasive cancer, and he published his "atypical viewpoint" that CIS was a benign disorder in international medical journals and the lay press. Alarmed by the number of women developing cancer and frustrated by the failure of the hospital authorities to deal with the problem, Dr. Bill McIndoe began presenting his interpretation of Dr. Green's study at international scientific meetings. Dr. Mattingly was aware of both Dr. Green's previous publications and the difficulties facing Dr. McIndoe, and he encouraged Dr. McIndoe to publish his data in Obstetrics & Gynecology. The correspondence between Dr. Mattingly, a senior U.S. academic and journal editor wishing to publish important scientific data, and Dr. McIndoe, an unknown antipodean clinician intent on revealing an unethical experiment, provides important lessons for all who practice medicine, in particular those in positions of responsibility.

This review is a short summary of the very long history of invasive and in situ carcinomas of the cervix. The items considered in this paper are the etiology of cervical cancer by a sexually transmitted agent proposed about 150 years ago by Domenico Rigoni Stern, the birth of radical surgery for the treatment of cervical invasive carcinoma with the Wertheim operation in 1898, radium therapy and chemotherapy, cytological diagnosis, the birth of colposcopy, microcolposcopy, the definition of carcinoma in situ, dysplasia and microcarcinoma, the birth of the International Federation for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy, condylomatosis lesions of the cervix and some HPVs as agents of cervical pre-cancer and cancer, and finally the concept of vaccination against oncogenic HPV types. All these constitute an integral part of common medical practice.