美國比較大的癌癥殺手：政府未能支持醫(yī)療篩查

美國最大的癌癥殺手：政府未能支持醫(yī)療篩查

When it comes to protecting yourself from cancer, don’t take the government’s word. Listen to the experts.

當(dāng)涉及到保護(hù)自己免受癌癥的時候，不要相信政府的話。聽專家講講。

The biggest cancer killer isn’t smoking, or a chemical in the environment, or even an inherited gene. It’s the failure to screen patients at high risk for the disease. Curing cancer is about detecting it early when it’s still treatable.

最大的癌癥殺手不是吸煙，也不是環(huán)境中的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，甚至不是遺傳基因。而是沒有及時篩查高風(fēng)險患者。治療癌癥，就是要在它還可以治療的時候，及早發(fā)現(xiàn)它。

President Trump promises that if re-elected, he’s going to make huge progress against cancer. His first step should be to make sure oncologists, radiologists and surgeons who treat cancer patients are added to the task force, which is under the Department of Health and Human Services. Cancer patients and their doctors deserve ­experts in their disease calling the shots.

特朗普總統(tǒng)承諾，如果連任，他將在抗癌方面取得巨大進(jìn)展。他的第一步應(yīng)該是確保腫瘤醫(yī)生、放射科醫(yī)生和治療癌癥患者的外科醫(yī)生，加入衛(wèi)生和人類服務(wù)部下屬的工作組。癌癥患者和他們的醫(yī)生應(yīng)該由癌癥專家來發(fā)號施令。

Last week, the task force recommended against screening for pancreatic cancer, the kind that killed tenor Luciano Pavarotti and astronaut Sally Ride. Jeopardy host Alex Trebek is battling it now, and 57,000 Americans are diagnosed with it each year.

上周，特別工作組建議不要篩查胰腺癌，正是胰腺癌導(dǎo)致男高音歌唱家盧西亞諾·帕瓦羅蒂(Luciano Pavarotti)和宇航員莎莉·萊德(Sally Ride)死亡。《危險邊緣》節(jié)目主持人亞歷克斯·特雷貝克現(xiàn)在正在與之斗爭，每年有5.7萬美國人被診斷出患有這種疾病。

The task force gave pancreatic cancer screening its worst rating, a “D,” meaning don’t do it. That’s OK for the general population, but the task force failed to ­expressly recommend screening for people with a family history of pancreatic cancer. That’s a deadly mistake.

工作組給胰腺癌篩查的最差評分是“D”，意思是不要做。這對一般人群來說沒問題，但工作組沒有明確建議對有胰腺癌家族史的人進(jìn)行篩查。那是一個致命的錯誤。

Similarly, the task force has waffled over lung cancer screening, leading to tens of thousands of needless deaths a year.

同樣，工作組在肺癌篩查問題上含糊其辭，導(dǎo)致每年成千上萬不必要的死亡。

Pancreatic cancer has a dismal 9% survival rate, partly because it is often diagnosed late, when it has spread too far to be surgically removed.

胰腺癌的存活率為9%，這在一定程度上是因為它常常診斷得太晚，擴(kuò)散得太遠(yuǎn)，以至于無法手術(shù)切除。

Dr. Diane Simeone, director of the Pancreatic Cancer at NYU’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, explains the task force should have recommended screening for people at high risk. Who are they? Patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer or a blood test indicating inherited risk.

紐約大學(xué)珀爾穆特癌癥中心胰腺癌主任，黛安·西蒙尼博士解釋說，工作組應(yīng)該建議對高危人群進(jìn)行篩查。哪些人是高危人群?就是那些有胰腺癌家族史，或血液檢查顯示有遺傳風(fēng)險的患者。

Screening means getting an MRI or an ­endoscopic ultrasound of the pancreas ­annually. “If you screen someone and find something, the odds that you can do surgery are 80 to 90%,” says Simeone.

篩查意味著每年對胰腺進(jìn)行一次核磁共振或內(nèi)鏡超聲檢查。西蒙尼說：“如果你對某人進(jìn)行篩查，發(fā)現(xiàn)了不好的東西，能做手術(shù)的幾率將是80%到90%。”

The task force claims these surgeries are dangerous. But Simeone suggests the task force’s data are obsolete, some going back as far as 2003. “It’s now 2019,” and the mortality rate at “highly experienced” medical centers for these procedures is less than 1%.

特別工作組稱這些手術(shù)很危險。但西蒙尼認(rèn)為，該工作組的數(shù)據(jù)已經(jīng)過時，有些甚至可以追溯到2003年。“現(xiàn)在是2019年”，在“經(jīng)驗豐富的”醫(yī)療中心，這種手術(shù)的死亡率不到1%。

On Monday, scientists from Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston announced their discovery of an additional inherited gene mutation causing pancreatic cancer. It occurs in the RABL3 gene, and people carrying it should be screened. “Catching pancreatic cancer through screening of high-risk ­individuals” will make it more treatable, the scientists explain.

周一，來自丹娜·法伯/布里格姆和波士頓婦女癌癥中心的科學(xué)家，宣布他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種導(dǎo)致胰腺癌的額外遺傳基因突變。它存在于RABL3基因中，攜帶該基因的人應(yīng)該進(jìn)行篩查?？茖W(xué)家們解釋說，“通過對高危個體的篩查而感染胰腺癌”將使其更容易治療。