Good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer | Laura Indolfi

譯者: Karen Feuerstein 審譯者: Caroline Zhang

By raising your hand,

在座的各位至少認識

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

一位螢幕上的人請舉手。

Wow, it's almost a full house.

哇, 基本上每個人都舉手了。

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

他們在各自的領域都十分有名。

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

你們知道他們有什麼共同點嗎?

They all died of pancreatic cancer.

他們都死於胰腺癌。

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

雖然這是很糟的一件事，

it's also thanks to their personal stories

但是正因為他們的故事

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

才使我們注意到胰腺癌有多致命。

It's become the third cause of cancer deaths,

在由癌症導致的死亡中，胰腺癌死亡率位居第三，

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

患有胰腺癌的病人只有8％可以活到五年以上。

That's a very tiny number,

這個數字幾乎微不足道。

especially if you compare it with breast cancer,

特別是跟乳腺癌比起來。

where the survival rate is almost 90 percent.

乳腺癌的存活率幾乎達到百分之九十。

So it doesn't really come as a surprise

所以，

被診斷出胰腺癌即幾乎意味著死亡

that being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

means facing an almost certain death sentence.

並不十分令人吃驚。

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

讓人驚訝的是，

this number hasn't changed a bit,

過去40年裡，

腫瘤治療的各個領域都有了突飛猛進的發展，

while much more progress has been made

with other types of tumors.

然而有關胰腺癌的數據一直沒有產生多大改變。

So how can we make pancreatic cancer treatment more effective?

我們如何能使對胰線癌的治療更有效?

As a biomedical entrepreneur,

作為生物醫學的企業家，

I like to work on problems that seem impossible,

我喜歡挑戰看起來不可能的問題，

understanding their limitations

了解它們的限制，

and trying to find new, innovative solutions

並試著找出創新的解決方法，

that can change their outcome.

从而改變现有的結果。

The first piece of bad news with pancreatic cancer

乳腺癌的存活率幾乎達到百分之九十。

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

胰臟差不多位於你肚子的正中間。

It's depicted in orange on the screen.

它是在螢幕上橘色的部份。

But you can barely see it

但幾乎很難被看見，

until I remove all the other organs in front.

除非把其他在前面的內臟都拿開。

It's also surrounded by many other vital organs,

它也被其他許多重要的內臟包圍，

like the liver, the stomach, the bile duct.

例如肝，胃，膽管。

And the ability of the tumor to grow into those organs

讓腫瘤有機會長到那些器管裏，

is the reason why pancreatic cancer

這就是為什麼胰腺癌

is one of the most painful tumor types.

是最痛苦的腫瘤之一。

The hard-to-reach location also prevents the doctor

以乳腺癌為例，腫瘤一般採取收摘除的方法。

from surgically removing it,

然而胰腺難以觸及的位置

as is routinely done for breast cancer, for example.

使得手術摘除不再是一個合理的選項。

So all of these reasons leave chemotherapy as the only option

這些原因導致化療成了

for the pancreatic cancer patient.

胰腺癌患者唯一的選擇。

This brings us to the second piece of bad news.

這帶給我們第二個壞消息，

Pancreatic cancer tumors have very few blood vessels.

胰腺腫瘤有很少的血管。

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

為什麼我們要注意腫瘤血管的問題?

Let's think for a second how chemotherapy works.

讓我們想一下化療是怎麼作用的。

The drug is injected in the vein

化療的藥物被注射到靜脈裏，

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

它通過整個身體直到到逹腫瘤處。

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

像在高速公路開車，試著到逹目的地。

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

但是你的目的地並没有出口怎麼辦?

You will never get there.

你就永遠到不了目的地。

And that's exactly the same problem

這就是用化療治療

for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer.

胰腺癌的問題的所在。

The drugs navigate throughout all of your body.

化療的藥物通過整個身體，

They will reach healthy organs,

會接觸到健康的內臟，

resulting in high toxic effect for the patients overall,

會讓毒性作用在病人的全身上下，

but very little will go to the tumor.

但只有非常少數會到逹腫瘤裏面。

Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.

因此療效非常地有限。

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

對我來說，只需針對特定的器官，

to target a specific organ.

卻採用讓全身接受治療是有悖常理。

However, in the last 40 years,

然而， 在過去40年，

a lot of money, research and effort have gone towards

大量的時間、研究和努力都被投入到了

finding new, powerful drugs to treat pancreatic cancer,

尋找新的、能更有效地治療胰腺癌的藥物。

but nothing has been done in changing the way

但卻沒有在改​​變將藥物送達患處的方式上

we deliver them to the patient.

做出更多的嘗試。

So after two pieces of bad news,

接連兩個壞消息之後，

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

希望我能在給各位一些好消息。

With a collaborator at MIT

經過同一名来自麻省理工大学的研究人员

and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston,

與波士頓的麻州綜合醫院的共同研究，

we have revolutionized the way we treat cancer

我們有了革命性的治療癌症的方法，

by making localized drug delivery a reality.

讓藥只在局部上作用的方法成真。

We are basically parachuting you on top of your destination,

我們讓你空降在目的地的正上方，

avoiding your having to drive all around the highway.

從而避免你在高速上四處亂轉。

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

我們把藥嵌入在你看到的這個裝置。

They are flexible enough that they can be folded

它很有彈性，

to fit into the catheter,

可以折起來放入導管之中，

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

因此醫生可以用微創手術，

with minimally invasive surgery.

直接放入腫瘤上面。

But they are solid enough that once they are positioned

它一旦放入又足夠穩固

on top of the tumor,

在腫瘤的上面，

they will act as a cage.

作用像一個籠子一樣。

They will actually physically prevent the tumor

它可以實際上防止腫瘤

from entering other organs,

進入到其他器官裏。

controlling the metastasis.

進而控制腫瘤移轉。

The devices are also biodegradable.

這個裝置也可以被生物分解。

That means that once in the body,

這意味從裝置被放入身體，

they start dissolving,

它們就會開始溶解，

delivering the drug only locally, slowly and more effectively

相比目前針對整個身體的療法，

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

這樣可以使藥物慢而有效的被運送到局部。

In pre-clinical study, we have demonstrated

臨床研究中，

that this localized approach

我們證明了這種定點治療的方法

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

可以使療效提升十二倍。

So we took a drug that is already known

我們拿已經知道的藥，

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

把它放在最需要的局部部位，

we allow a response that is 12 times more powerful,

讓它有12倍強的作用能力，

reducing the systemic toxic effect.

同時減輕了對身體系統的有毒影響。

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

我們不懈努力為了使科技更上一層樓。

We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing

我們正在做最終確定的臨床測試，

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

動物實驗還有待美國藥物管理局

for clinical trials.

對臨床試驗的認可。

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

目前，大部份的胰腺癌病患會面臨死亡。

We are hoping that one day,

我們希望有一天，

we can reduce their pain, extend their life

能減少他們的痛苦，延長他們的壽命，

and potentially make pancreatic cancer

並可能使胰腺癌成為

a curable disease.

一個可治之症。

By rethinking the way we deliver the drug,

經由再次思考用藥方式，

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

我們不僅使藥更有效也更少毒害，

we are also opening the door to finding new innovative solutions

在解決治愈胰腺癌患

for almost all other impossible problems

甚至更多領域不可能完成的问题，

in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.

找到了創新的解决方式。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝大家。

(Applause)

(鼓掌)