Stanley M. Gartler, Pioneer in Cancer Research, Dies at 102

Stanley M. Gartler, a scientist who made two of the most important discoveries in cancer research, died on May 25 at his home in Seattle. He was 102 years old. Dr. Gartler was a geneticist, which means he studied genes — the instructions inside our cells that control how our bodies grow and work. His work helped doctors better understand cancer and exposed a serious problem in labs across the world.

Dr. Gartler joined the University of Washington in 1957 and kept working in his lab until 2007 — 50 years of active research. One of his biggest questions was: how does cancer actually start? In the early 1960s, he set out to find the answer.

A German scientist named Theodor Boveri had suggested, around the year 1900, that cancer begins when a single cell grows out of control. But he had no proof. Dr. Gartler decided to find that proof by studying a type of benign, or non-dangerous, tumor called a fibroid. These tumors were removed from the uteruses of Black women during surgeries, and Dr. Gartler worked with a doctor named David Linder to examine them closely.

To understand his discovery, it helps to know a little about chromosomes. Women have two X chromosomes in each cell. Early in life, most genes on one of those X chromosomes are turned off in a process called X inactivation. Dr. Gartler focused on one specific gene on the X chromosome called G6PD, which comes in two forms — a type A and a type B.

In normal tissue, Dr. Gartler and Dr. Linder found a mix of both A and B versions. But in tumor tissue, they found only one version — either A or B, never both. This was published in the journal Science in 1965. It was strong evidence that each tumor grew from a single cell, just as Boveri had guessed 65 years earlier.

Dr. Gail Jarvik, who leads the medical genetics division at the University of Washington, explained why this mattered so much. 'We really had to understand the biology of cancer to have any possibility of treating it,' she said. Knowing that cancer starts in one cell helped scientists figure out how to fight it with treatments like chemotherapy and targeted drug therapies.

That same year, 1965, Dr. Gartler made a second major discovery. He was studying 18 different collections of human cells kept in labs for research. These cell collections, called cell lines, were supposed to be completely separate and unique. But when he looked at their genetic markers, he found they were all identical — they all carried the rare A version of the G6PD gene.

This led Dr. Gartler to a shocking conclusion. All 18 cell lines had been taken over by the very first permanent human cell line ever created, known as HeLa. The HeLa line came from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Cells from her tumor had been taken at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore without her knowledge or permission, and they were sent to labs all over the world.

HeLa cells were famous for being incredibly tough and easy to grow. They were so strong that they could spread through the air on dust particles, stick to lab coats, or travel on unwashed hands. Without realizing it, researchers had let HeLa cells take over their other cell cultures. Scientists who thought they were studying kidney or liver cancer were likely studying Henrietta Lacks's cervical cancer cells instead.

Dr. Gartler presented this finding at a major science conference in Pennsylvania in 1966. He told an audience of 700 scientists that the research done on those cell lines was 'open to serious question' and that the work 'best be discarded.' The room was stunned. Many scientists did not want to accept the news, but over time enough researchers agreed that Dr. Gartler's findings could not be ignored.

Author Michael Gold, who wrote a 1985 book about the HeLa scandal, said Dr. Gartler truly raised the alarm about a problem that wasted enormous amounts of time and money on invalid science. Because of Dr. Gartler's work, laboratories around the world improved how they checked and labeled their cell lines. His discovery became a turning point in how carefully science is done.

The story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells later became world-famous. Author Rebecca Skloot wrote about it in her 2010 bestselling book, 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.' The case raised important questions about patient privacy, informed consent, and whether families should be paid when a relative's cells are used for research. In a 2012 lecture, Dr. Gartler said, 'I personally wouldn't want to be remembered for a cancer cell.'

Dr. Gartler was born on June 9, 1923, in Los Angeles. His parents had emigrated from Romania, and his father owned a dry cleaning plant. He started college at UCLA in 1941, but left to serve in World War II as a radio operator and machine-gunner on a B-26 bomber over Europe. After the war, he returned to finish his degree and earned his Ph.D. in genetics from UC Berkeley in 1952.

He also made a third notable discovery in 1962, publishing a study about a girl who had two different-colored eyes and other unusual physical features. Dr. Jarvik called it the first demonstration of mixed XX and XY cells in a human, likely caused by two twin fetuses fusing very early in development. 'It really does say sex determination is much more complex than XX and XY,' Dr. Jarvik said.

Dr. Gartler's wife, Marion Mitchelson Gartler, died in 2016, and he had no immediate survivors. His death was confirmed by his nephew, Dr. Richard Weiner. Stanley Gartler lived to 102 and spent most of those years pushing science forward — asking hard questions and following the evidence wherever it led.