Ethical Challenges Using Human Tumor Cell Lines in Cancer Research

Human and animal cell cultures are indispensable model systems for the biomedical research and pharmaceutical industry and already represent one of the most important alternatives to animal experiments. The development of mammalian cell culture started in the first half of the last century when fundamental questions of genetics were unresolved and the pioneers of cell culture did not care about individual personality rights of donors of biomaterials. However, cultivation of primary and continuous cell cultures was and still is usually associated with the use of FBS, which—almost universally applicable—is questionable in terms of extraction and quality variations measurably affecting reproducibility of results. The history of the cell line HeLa is a prime example for the development of biomedical research with its great successes in the fight against cancer and development of Polio Virus vaccinia, but also for limitations in the public and scientific applications of cell lines in the age of digitization and bioinformatics. HeLa leads from the establishment of the first human continuous cell line to initial cancer research using tumor cells, from disastrous cross-contaminations by HeLa cell cultures to legal and ethical controversy by reading out the individual genome and the commercial use that continues to this day.