Good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer | Laura Indolfi

Translator: Maite Diaz Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

Levantade a man

By raising your hand,

how many of you know at least one person on the screen?

os que recoñezades algunha das caras da pantalla...

Wow, it's almost a full house.

Uauh! Case todo o mundo!

It's true, they are very famous in their fields.

Si, todas esas persoas son famosas nos seus campos.

And do you know what all of them have in common?

E sabedes qué teñen en común?

They all died of pancreatic cancer.

Todas elas morreron de cancro de páncreas.

However, although it's very, very sad this news,

Aínda que é unha noticia moi triste,

it's also thanks to their personal stories

grazas ás súas historias individuais

somos máis conscientes do letal que pode ser esta enfermidade.

that we have raised awareness of how lethal this disease can be.

It's become the third cause of cancer deaths,

É a terceira causa de morte por cáncer,

and only eight percent of the patients will survive beyond five years.

e tan só o 8% dos enfermos sobrevivirá máis de cinco anos.

That's a very tiny number,

É unha porcentaxe moi pequena,

sobre todo se a comparas coa do cancro de mama,

especially if you compare it with breast cancer,

where the survival rate is almost 90 percent.

onde temos case un 90% de taxa de supervivencia.

So it doesn't really come as a surprise

Non é, pois, unha sorpresa,

that being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

que ser diagnosticado de cancro de páncreas

means facing an almost certain death sentence.

signifique enfrontarse, practicamente, a unha sentenza de morte.

Porén, o que resulta sorprendente é que nos últimos 40 anos

What's shocking, though, is that in the last 40 years,

this number hasn't changed a bit,

esa porcentaxe non minguara nada,

mentres que si se fixeron moitos progresos

while much more progress has been made

with other types of tumors.

con outros tipos de tumor.

So how can we make pancreatic cancer treatment more effective?

Entón, como podemos facer máis efectivo o tratamento de cancro pancreático?

As a biomedical entrepreneur,

Como emprendedora en biomedicina,

I like to work on problems that seem impossible,

gústame traballar en desafíos que parecen imposíbeis;

understanding their limitations

gústame entender as súas limitacións

and trying to find new, innovative solutions

e procurar atopar solucións innovadoras

that can change their outcome.

que poidan cambiar o resultado lóxico.

A primeira má noticia sobre o cancro de páncreas

The first piece of bad news with pancreatic cancer

is that your pancreas is in the middle of your belly, literally.

é que este órgano atópase, literalmente, no medio do ventre.

Está pintado de laranxa na pantalla,

It's depicted in orange on the screen.

But you can barely see it

pero apenas poderás velo

until I remove all the other organs in front.

ata que retire tódolos outros órganos de diante.

O páncreas tamén está rodeado por moitos outros órganos vitais,

It's also surrounded by many other vital organs,

como o fígado, o estómago ou o conduto biliar.

like the liver, the stomach, the bile duct.

And the ability of the tumor to grow into those organs

A capacidade que ten o tumor de medrar neses órganos

is the reason why pancreatic cancer

é a razón pola que o cancro de páncreas

is one of the most painful tumor types.

é un dos tumores máis dolorosos.

The hard-to-reach location also prevents the doctor

A dificultade para localizalo tamén impide que o médico

from surgically removing it,

o extirpe mediante cirurxía,

as is routinely done for breast cancer, for example.

procedemento xa rutineiro co cancro de mama, por exemplo.

So all of these reasons leave chemotherapy as the only option

Por todas estas razóns, a quimioterapia é a única opción

para o paciente de cancro de páncreas.

for the pancreatic cancer patient.

This brings us to the second piece of bad news.

Isto lévanos á segunda má noticia...

Pancreatic cancer tumors have very few blood vessels.

Os tumores no páncreas teñen moi poucos vasos sanguíneos.

Why should we care about the blood vessel of a tumor?

Pero, por que deberían importarnos os vasos sanguíneos dun tumor?

Let's think for a second how chemotherapy works.

Pensemos durante un segundo en como funciona a quimioterapia:

The drug is injected in the vein

O fármaco inxéctase na vea

and it navigates throughout the body until it reaches the tumor site.

e navega polo corpo ata acadar o lugar do tumor.

It's like driving on a highway, trying to reach a destination.

É como conducir nunha autovía, tentando chegar a un destino.

Que pasa se na estrada non existe unha saída para o teu destino?

But what if your destination doesn't have an exit on the highway?

You will never get there.

Que non chegarás nunca.

And that's exactly the same problem

Estamos exactamente ante o mesmo problema

for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer.

coa quimioterapia e o cancro de páncreas.

As medicinas percorren todo o corpo,

The drugs navigate throughout all of your body.

They will reach healthy organs,

chegarán a órganos sans,

resulting in high toxic effect for the patients overall,

producindo efectos moi tóxicos para a saúde xeral do paciente,

but very little will go to the tumor.

pero moi pouco fármaco chegará ao tumor.

Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.

Daquela, a eficacia é moi limitada.

To me, it seems very counterintuitive to have a whole-body treatment

Paréceme bastante contraditorio medicar todo o corpo

to target a specific organ.

para curar un órgano específico.

However, in the last 40 years,

Con todo, nos últimos 40 anos

destináronse moitos cartos, investigacións e esforzos

a lot of money, research and effort have gone towards

finding new, powerful drugs to treat pancreatic cancer,

a encontrar novos e potentes fármacos contra o cancro de páncreas,

but nothing has been done in changing the way

pero nada se fixo para cambiar a maneira

en que llos subministramos ao paciente.

we deliver them to the patient.

So after two pieces of bad news,

Ben, despois de dúas más noticias,

vouvos dar, espero, boas novas.

I'm going to give you good news, hopefully.

With a collaborator at MIT

Xunto cun colaborador do MIT

and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston,

e o Hospital Xeral de Massachusetts en Boston,

we have revolutionized the way we treat cancer

vimos de revolucionar a forma na que tratamos o cáncer,

facendo posible enviar o medicamento ao lugar preciso.

by making localized drug delivery a reality.

We are basically parachuting you on top of your destination,

Basicamente, o que facemos é lanzarte en paracaídas enriba do teu destino,

avoiding your having to drive all around the highway.

aforrándoche conducir todo ao redor da autovía.

We have embedded the drug into devices that look like this one.

O que fixemos foi inserir o fármaco en dispositivos parecidos a este,

They are flexible enough that they can be folded

o bastante flexíbeis para seren dobrados

to fit into the catheter,

e encaixar no catéter;

so the doctor can implant it directly on top of the tumor

así o médico pode implantalo directamente sobre o tumor

with minimally invasive surgery.

cunha cirurxía minimamente invasiva.

But they are solid enough that once they are positioned

Estes dispositivos son o bastante sólidos para que, unha vez colocados

on top of the tumor,

encima do tumor,

actúen coma unha gaiola,

they will act as a cage.

They will actually physically prevent the tumor

evitando fisicamente que o tumor

se introduza noutros órganos,

from entering other organs,

controlling the metastasis.

controlando a metástase.

The devices are also biodegradable.

Os dispositivos tamén son biodegradábeis,

That means that once in the body,

polo que unha vez dentro do corpo,

they start dissolving,

comezan a disolverse,

delivering the drug only locally, slowly and more effectively

soltando a medicina no lugar exacto, lentamente e con máis eficacia

than what is done with the current whole-body treatment.

do que se facía ata agora tratando todo o corpo.

In pre-clinical study, we have demonstrated

Nun estudo preclínico demostramos

que este achegamento localizado

that this localized approach

is able to improve by 12 times the response to treatment.

é capaz de multiplicar por 12 a resposta ao tratamento.

So we took a drug that is already known

Así que collemos un fármaco xa coñecido

and by just delivering it locally where it's needed the most,

e só por aplicalo onde é realmente máis necesario,

we allow a response that is 12 times more powerful,

obtemos unha resposta 12 veces máis potente,

que reduce o efecto tóxico para o corpo.

reducing the systemic toxic effect.

Estamos traballando arreo en mellorar esta tecnoloxía.

We are working relentlessly to bring this technology to the next level.

We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing

Estamos a piques de rematar os estudos preclínicos

e os tests en animais requiridos antes de solicita-la aprobación do Goberno

and the animal model required prior to asking the FDA for approval

for clinical trials.

para ensaios clínicos.

Currently, the majority of patients will die from pancreatic cancer.

Hoxe en día, a maioría dos pacientes con cancro de páncreas morre.

Confiamos en que un día

We are hoping that one day,

we can reduce their pain, extend their life

poidamos atenua-la súa dor, prolonga-las súas vidas,

and potentially make pancreatic cancer

e quizais, facer do cancro de páncreas

a curable disease.

unha enfermidade curábel.

By rethinking the way we deliver the drug,

Repensando a forma na que se aplica o fármaco,

non só o facemos máis potente e menos tóxico,

we don't only make it more powerful and less toxic,

we are also opening the door to finding new innovative solutions

senón que abrimo-la porta para atopar novas solucións

for almost all other impossible problems

a case tódolos outros problemas imposíbeis

in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.

para os pacientes de cancro de páncreas e moitos outros.

Thank you very much.

Moitas grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)