美国比较大的癌症杀手：政府未能支持医疗筛查

美国最大的癌症杀手：政府未能支持医疗筛查

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

当涉及到保护自己免受癌症的时候，不要相信政府的话。听专家讲讲。

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.

最大的癌症杀手不是吸烟，也不是环境中的化学物质，甚至不是遗传基因。而是没有及时筛查高风险患者。治疗癌症，就是要在它还可以治疗的时候，及早发现它。

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.

特朗普总统承诺，如果连任，他将在抗癌方面取得巨大进展。他的第一步应该是确保肿瘤医生、放射科医生和治疗癌症患者的外科医生，加入卫生和人类服务部下属的工作组。癌症患者和他们的医生应该由癌症专家来发号施令。

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，特别工作组建议不要筛查胰腺癌，正是胰腺癌导致男高音歌唱家卢西亚诺·帕瓦罗蒂(Luciano Pavarotti)和宇航员莎莉·莱德(Sally Ride)死亡。《危险边缘》节目主持人亚历克斯·特雷贝克现在正在与之斗争，每年有5.7万美国人被诊断出患有这种疾病。

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.

工作组给胰腺癌筛查的最差评分是“D”，意思是不要做。这对一般人群来说没问题，但工作组没有明确建议对有胰腺癌家族史的人进行筛查。那是一个致命的错误。

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

同样，工作组在肺癌筛查问题上含糊其辞，导致每年成千上万不必要的死亡。

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.

胰腺癌的存活率为9%，这在一定程度上是因为它常常诊断得太晚，扩散得太远，以至于无法手术切除。

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.

纽约大学珀尔穆特癌症中心胰腺癌主任，黛安·西蒙尼博士解释说，工作组应该建议对高危人群进行筛查。哪些人是高危人群?就是那些有胰腺癌家族史，或血液检查显示有遗传风险的患者。

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.

筛查意味着每年对胰腺进行一次核磁共振或内镜超声检查。西蒙尼说：“如果你对某人进行筛查，发现了不好的东西，能做手术的几率将是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%.

特别工作组称这些手术很危险。但西蒙尼认为，该工作组的数据已经过时，有些甚至可以追溯到2003年。“现在是2019年”，在“经验丰富的”医疗中心，这种手术的死亡率不到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，来自丹娜·法伯/布里格姆和波士顿妇女癌症中心的科学家，宣布他们发现了一种导致胰腺癌的额外遗传基因突变。它存在于RABL3基因中，携带该基因的人应该进行筛查。科学家们解释说，“通过对高危个体的筛查而感染胰腺癌”将使其更容易治疗。