Color enhanced scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of HeLa cancer cells growing in culture. Cancer is the result of uncontrolled division by the body's cells. HeLa cells are the first human cell line, established in 1952 to research cancer. They were obtained in 1951 from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks of Baltimore, Maryland. She died of cervical cancer eight months later, and the cells are named for her. Her cancer was an epidermoid carcinoma. HeLa cells thrive in laboratory conditions and are now used in cancer research worldwide.