Henrietta Lacks' cells were essential in developing the polio vaccine and were used in scientific landmarks such as cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. Courtesy of the Lacks family ...

GENEVA (AP) — The chief of the World Health Organization has honored the late Henrietta Lacks, an American woman whose cancer cells ended up providing the foundation for vast scientific breakthroughs.

She never traveled farther than Baltimore from her family home in southern Virginia, but her cells have traveled around the Earth and far above it, too. She was buried in an unmarked grave, but the ...

GENEVA (AP) — The chief of the World Health Organization on Wednesday honored the late Henrietta Lacks, an American woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge during the 1950s and ended ...