第2965期:New technologies help diagnose pancreatic cancer

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is perhaps the most famous person to survive pancreatic cancer.美国最高法院法官露丝·巴德·金斯伯格或许是胰腺癌幸存者中最著名的人物了。She's actually done it twice. Ginsburg's cancer was found early, which is rare.她实际上两次战胜了病魔。金斯伯格的癌症发现得很早，这种情况实属罕见。Chemotherapy is one treatment for a pancreatic cancer. But only 9 percent of those who are diagnosed with it are alive five years later.化疗是胰腺癌的一种疗法。但确诊后五年存活率的患者仅有9%。The location of the pancreas makes the cancer difficult to detect. The pancreas is at the back of the abdomen.胰腺的位置使得癌症难以被发现。胰腺位于腹部后方。It's covered by the stomach and the liver. So cancerous tumors or cysts can't be seen or felt.它被胃和肝脏所覆盖。癌性肿瘤或囊肿既看不见也摸不着。And there is one more thing. The cancer doesn't produce any symptoms early on.此外，早期胰腺癌没有任何症状。Patricia Beatty had a pain in her stomach. During a sonogram, the doctor found a cyst.Patricia Beatty感到胃疼。在超声波检查中，医生发现了一个囊肿。He told me that you know that the cyst was there and that it was precancerous.大夫告诉我囊肿在那里，而且是癌前病变。Doctors can test fluid from inside the cyst, but it's hard to tell which cysts will become cancerous.医生可以检测囊肿内的液体，但很难判断哪些囊肿会癌变。Dr. Somashekar Krishna at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center led a study of a new diagnostic method俄亥俄州立大学韦克斯纳医学中心的Somashekar Krishna博士领导了一项新诊断方法的研究，that gives the doctors a microscopic view of the cyst wall, a virtual biopsy that turns out to be highly accurate.该方法能让医生观察到囊肿壁的微观视图，这种虚拟活检技术被证明具有极高的准确性。We can diagnose cysts with the accuracy of 96 percent to 97 percent.我们诊断囊肿的准确率能达到96% 至97%。The procedure uses a tiny scope that lets the doctor see inside of the cyst.该手术使用一个微型内窥镜，让医生能够观察囊肿内部的情况。Looking at the image pattern which comes from the cyst wall, which comes as a direct video feed in real time, we can conclude what the diagnosis is.通过实时视频直接观察囊肿壁的图像模式，我们可以得出诊断结果。With this new tool doctors can save lives. But pancreatic cysts or tumors still have to be found first with imaging tests that are ordered for something else.有了这个新工具，医生可以挽救生命。但胰腺囊肿或肿瘤仍需先通过因其他原因安排的影像学检查来发现。These tests are expensive and can't be used for routine screening. So this doesn't help the majority of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.这些检测费用昂贵，不能用于常规筛查。所以这对大多数被诊断为胰腺癌的人没有帮助。Krishna says the most logical way to diagnose pancreatic cancer early on is with the blood test. Researchers are working on developing one but they aren't there yet.Krishna表示，早期诊断胰腺癌最合理的方法是进行血液检测。研究人员正在研究一种验血的方法，但目前尚未成功。Meantime, Beatty is cancer-free because a new diagnostic tool found her cyst before it became malignant. 同时，Beatty已无癌症困扰，因为一种新型诊断工具在她的囊肿恶变之前就发现了它。