VOA慢速：新疗法或为脑瘤儿童带来希望
欢迎来到今天的VOA慢速专区。
今天为大家带来一篇美国新闻。
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
欢迎收听VOA英语学习栏目，本期专题是健康与生活方式。
For many years, a deadly type of childhood cancer has escaped science's best treatments.
多年来，科学界一直没有找到治疗某种致命儿童期癌症的最佳方法。
But now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment.
不过，如今，医生们在一种罕见的治疗方式上取得了进展。
They inject a virus into the brain to infect the tumors.
医生们将一种病毒注射进大脑来感染肿瘤。
This causes the body's immune system to attack.
这使得机体的免疫系统发起攻击。
Many children treated this way lived more than twice as long as patients that did not have the treatment.
很多受过这种治疗的儿童，生命都是未经该方式治疗者的2倍以上。
Doctors reported this news Saturday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine.
周六，医生们将这则消息在美国癌症研究协会的会议以及新英格兰医学期刊上公开了。
The Associated Press reported on the findings.
美联社报道了这一发现成果。
Although in the end, most of the children died of their disease, a few are alive and are doing well over a year after treatment.
虽然大多数儿童最终会因这种疾病而死亡，但有一些儿童治疗后活了下来。
This is something unheard of in this situation.
这是大家闻所未闻的。
This is the first step, a critical step, said the leader of the study, Dr. Gregory Friedman.
该研究的负责人格雷戈里·弗里德曼表示，这是第一步，也是关键的一步。
He is a childhood cancer specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
他是阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校的儿童癌症专家。
Friedman added that their goal is to improve on this latest finding.
弗里德曼补充说，他们的目标是改进这一最新发现。
He said that first, they will use this new treatment as soon as the tumor is found.
他表示，首先，肿瘤一经发现，他们就会立刻使用这种新治疗手段。
They also plan to combine this treatment with other treatments,
另外，他们计划将该治疗手段与其他治疗手段相结合，
he said, to increase the effectiveness of the body's immune system.
他表示，这样做是为了提升机体免疫系统的效能。
The patients in the study were given the experimental treatment after other treatments failed to help their illnesses.
参与该研究的患者们进行了实验性的治疗，在之前，已经证明其他治疗手段对他们的病情没有帮助。
The study involved gliomas.
该研究涉及到了神经胶质瘤，
They make up 8 percent to 10 percent of childhood brain tumors.
这种物质在儿童期脑瘤中占8%-10%的比例。
These tumors are usually treated with operations, chemotherapy, or radiation.
这种肿瘤通常是通过手术、化疗、放射来进行治疗的。
However, they often come back.
不过，病情总是会复发。
Once they return, survival averages just under six months.
一旦病情复发，平均存活期就只有不到6个月了。
In such cases, the immune system has lost the ability to find and attack the cancer.
在这种情况下，免疫系统就会失去寻找并攻击癌细胞的能力。
So, scientists have been looking for ways to make the tumor a fresh target.
所以，科学家们一直在寻找方法来让肿瘤能一直成为免疫系统的攻击对象。
To do this, they turned to the herpes virus.
为了实现这个目标，他们用疱疹病毒进行了实验，
It creates a strong immune system response.
触发了强烈的免疫系统反应。
A company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called Treovir, developed the treatment.
一家位于宾夕法尼亚州费城的公司名叫Treovir，这种治疗方式是该公司研发的。
Researchers there genetically changed, or modified, the virus so it would infect only cancer cells.
该公司的研究人员改变了病毒的基因，使病毒只能影响到癌细胞。
Doctors gave the modified virus to 12 patients ages 7 to 18.
医生们将经过基因改变的病毒注入了7-18岁的12名患者体内。
In all of them their cancer had worsened after usual treatments.
这些患者在经过了常规治疗后，病情恶化了。
Half also received one treatment of radiation.
其中半数患者还接受了放射治疗。
Radiation is thought to help the herpes virus spread.
一些人认为，放射治疗有助于疱疹病毒传播。
In 11 of the 12 patients, imaging tests or tissue samples showed that the treatment was working.
12名患者中有11人的影像测试或组织样本显示，这种治疗方式是有效的。
Average survival was just over a year.
平均存活期刚好超过了1年，
That is more than two times longer than in the past.
是之前存活期的2倍。
As of last June, four of the patients were still alive at least 18 months after treatment.
截至去年6月，4名患者在治疗的18个月后还健康生活着。
Tests also showed high levels of specialized immune system cells in their tumors.
测试显示，他们的肿瘤中有高浓度的免疫系统分化细胞。
This suggests that the treatment had created help needed from the body to attack the disease.
这表明，这种治疗方式为机体提供了所需的帮助，可以攻克该疾病。
No serious safety issues were seen.
没有发现严重的安全问题。
Jake Kestler had the treatment when he was 12.
杰克·凯斯特勒12岁的时候接受了这个治疗。
It went very well.
这次治疗很成功。
He lived for a year and four months after that, said his father, Josh Kestler.
他的父亲乔西·凯斯特勒表示，他的儿子在治疗结束后又活了1年4个月。
This gave his son enough time to celebrate his bar mitzvah, go with his family to Hawaii, and see a brother be born.
这让他的儿子有足够的时间来庆祝自己的受戒礼、跟家人去夏威夷、见证自己亲弟弟的降生。
Jake died April 11, 2019.
2019年4月11日，杰克去世了。
But his father told the AP that they have no regrets whatsoever about trying the treatment.
但他的父亲在接受美联社采访时表示，他们对于尝试这次治疗没有任何遗憾。
He and his wife have started a foundation, Trail Blazers for Kids, to continue this research.
他和妻子开办了一个基金会名叫儿童先锋基金会，以支持该研究继续。
It's a devastating disease for these patients and their families, said Dr. Antoni Ribas.
安东尼里巴斯表示，这对于患者及其家人来说都是一种毁灭性的疾病。
He is a cancer specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the group holding the conference.
他是洛杉矶加利福尼亚大学的癌症专家，也是主持这次会议的团体的负责人。
He added that early results suggest the virus treatment is helping.
他补充表示，初期的结果表明，通过病毒治疗是有帮助的。
However, the findings need to be confirmed in a larger study.
不过，他们的发现成果需要在规模更大的研究中得到证实。
Doctors are now planning such a study.
一些医生现在正在规划这样一项研究。
Friedman said studies are continuing in adults as well.
弗里德曼表示，相关研究也在成年人身上继续进行着。
He added that there are plans to try this treatment on other types of childhood brain tumors.
他补充表示，目前由计划把这种治疗更多地尝试在其他类型的儿童期脑瘤上。
U.S. government grants and several foundations paid for the study, and several doctors have financial ties to the company Treovir.
美国政府津贴和几个基金会为该研究提供了资金，几位医生也跟Treovir公司有财务上的联系。
Only one similar virus therapy is currently approved in the United States.
美国目前只有一种类似的病毒疗法审核通过了。该产品名为Imlygic，
It is called Imlygic and is also a modified herpes virus.
也是一种基因经过改变的疱疹病毒。
It is used for treating melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.
该产品用于治疗黑素瘤，黑素瘤是最严重的一种皮肤癌。
And that's the Health & Lifestyle report.
以上是本期健康与生活方式的报道。
I'm Anna Matteo.
安娜·马泰奥为您播报。
这里是 美国之音 频道