Everyone's familiar with cancer, but we don't normally think of cancer as being a contagious disease. The Tasmanian devil has shown us that, not only can cancer be a contagious disease, but it can also threaten an entire species with extinction.
Cdonjeri eshte i njohur me kancerin, por ne normalisht nuk mendojme kancerin si nje semundje ngjitese. Djalli i Tasmanise na ka treguar ne se, jo vetem qe mund te jete ngjites, por edhe kercenues per te gjithe speciet me zhdukje.
So first of all, what is a Tasmanian devil? Many of you might be familiar with Taz, the cartoon character, the one that spins around and around and around. But not many people know that there actually is a real animal called the Tasmanian devil, and it's the world's largest carnivorous marsupial. A marsupial is a mammal with a pouch like a kangaroo. The Tasmanian devil got its name from the terrifying nocturnal scream that it makes.
Pike se pari, cfare eshte djalli i Tasmanise? Shume nga ju mund ta njohin Taz-in, nje personazh i animuar, ai qe vertitet rrotul e rrotull e rotull. Por jo shume prej jush e dine qe aktualisht eshte nje kafshe qe quajne Djalli i Tasmanise, dhe qe eshte nje nga marsupialet me te medhenje mishngrenes ne bote. Marsupial eshte nje gjitar me nje xhep si te kangurit. Djalli Tasmanise e ka marre emrin nga klithmat e frikshme qe leshon naten.
(Screaming)
( Klithma )
(Laughter)
( Te qeshura )
The Tasmanian devil is predominantly a scavenger, and it uses its powerful jaws and its sharp teeth to chomp on the bones of rotting dead animals. [The] Tasmanian devil is found only on the island of Tasmania, which is that small island just to the south of the mainland of Australia. And despite their ferocious appearance, Tasmanian devils are actually quite adorable little animals. In fact, growing up in Tasmania, it always was incredibly exciting when we got a chance to see a Tasmanian devil in the wild.
Djalli i Tasmanise eshte kryesisht nje ngrenes mbeturinash te ngordhura, dhe perdor nofullat e fuqishme dhe dhembet e tij te mprehte te coptoje kockat e kafsheve te ngordhura. Djalli i Tasmanise gjendet ne ishullin e Tasmanise, qe eshte nje ishull i vogel ne jug te kontinentit Australian. Dhe pervec pamjes mizore, djajte Tasmanise jane kafshe adhuruese. Ne fakt, duke u rritur ne Tasmani, eshte gjithmone emocionuese kur ne patem shansin ta shohim nje djall te Tasmanise ne nje ambjent te eger.
But the Tasmanian devil population has been undergoing a really extremely fast decline. And in fact, there's concern that the species could go extinct in the wild within 20 to 30 years. And the reason for that is the emergence of a new disease, a contagious cancer.
Por pupullimi i djallit te Tasmanise eshte duke perjetuar nje renie te shpejte. Dhe ne fakt, eshte nje shqetesim qe kjo specie mund te zhduket brenda 20 deri 30 vitesh. Dhe arsyeja e kesaj eshte krijimi i nje semundje te re nje kancer ngjites.
The story begins in 1996 when a wildlife photographer took this photograph here of a Tasmanian devil with a large tumor on its face. At the time, this was thought to be a one-off. Animals, just like humans, sometimes get strange tumors. However, we now believe that this is the first sighting of a new disease, which is now an epidemic spreading through Tasmania. The disease was first sighted in the northeast of Tasmania in 1996 and has spread across Tasmania like a huge wave. Now there's only a small part of the population, which remains unaffected.
Historia filloi ne 1996 kur nje fotograf profesionist more kete foto ketu te nje djali te Tasmanise me nje tumor te madh ne fytyren e tij. Ne ate kohe, u mendua qe mund te ishte dicka e karakterit natyror. Kafshet, ashtu si njerzit, ndonjehere mund te kene tumore te cuditshme. Megjithate, ne tani besojme qe kjo eshte hera e pare e nje semundje te re, qe tani eshte perhapur epidemikisht ne Tasmani. Semundja u vu re per here te pare ne verilindje te Tasmanise ne 1996 dhe eshte perhapur permes Tasmanise si nje vale e madhe. Ka vetem nje pjese te vogel te popullsise, qe mbetet e pa infektuar.
This disease appears first as tumors, usually on the face or inside the mouth of affected Tasmanian devils. These tumors inevitably grow into larger tumors, such as these ones here. And the next image I'm going to show is quite gruesome. But inevitably, these tumors progress towards being enormous, ulcerating tumors like this one here.
Semundja duket si nje tumor, zakonisht ne fytyre ose brenda gojes se djajveTasmanian te infektuar. Keto tumore ne menyre te pashmanghsme rriten ne tumore me te medhenje, si keto ketu. Ne pamjen tjeter une do t'ju tregoj eshte mjaft e frikshme. Por ne menyre te pashmangshme, keto tumore avancojne drejt zmadhimit , duke crijuar tumore si ky ketu.
This one in particular sticks in my mind, because this is the first case of this disease that I saw myself. And I remember the horror of seeing this little female devil with this huge ulcerating, foul-smelling tumor inside her mouth that had actually cracked off her entire lower jaw. She hadn't eaten for days. Her guts were swimming with parasitic worms. Her body was riddled with secondary tumors. And yet, she was feeding three little baby Tasmanian devils in her pouch. Of course, they died along with the mother. They were too young to survive without their mother. In fact, in the area where she comes from, more than 90 percent of the Tasmanian devil population has already died of this disease.
Pikerisht ky rri ne mendjen time, sepse ky eshte rasti pare i semundjes qe une e pashe me syte e mi. Dhe me kujtohet kur pashe kete djall femer me kete tumor kaq te madh me ere te keqe brenda gojes se saj qe e kishte plasaritur te tere nofullen e poshtme te saj. Ajo nuk kishte ngrene me dite te tera. Zorret e saj po notonin ne krimba parazite. Trupi i saj ishte mbushur me tumore sekondare. Dhe ne anen tjeter, ajo po ushqente tre te vegjlit ne xhepin e saj . Sigurisht, qe ato ngordhen me mamane e tyre. Ata ishin shume te vegjel per te mbijetuar pa mamane e tyre. Ne fakt, vendi nga vjen ajo , me shume se 90 perqind e popullates se djallit te Tasmanise tashme kane ngordhur nga e njejta semundje.
Scientists around the world were intrigued by this cancer, this infectious cancer, that was spreading through the Tasmanian devil population. And our minds immediately turned to cervical cancer in women, which is spread by a virus, and to the AIDS epidemic, which is associated with a number of different types of cancer. All the evidence suggested that this devil cancer was spread by a virus. However, we now know -- and I'll tell you right now -- that we know that this cancer is not spread by a virus. In fact, the infectious agent of disease in this cancer is something altogether more sinister, and something that we hadn't really thought of before. But in order for me to explain what that is, I need to spend just a couple of minutes talking more about cancer itself.
Shkencetaret nga e gjithe bota jane intriguar nga ky kancer, ky kancer ngjites, qe u shpernda neper popullaten e Djallit te Tasmanise. Dhe mendjet tona menjehere u kthyen nga kanceri cervikal i grave, qe shperdahet nga nje virus, dhe nga epidemia e Sides, qe percillet me nje numer kanceresh te ndryshme. Te gjitha provat deshmojne se ky kancer i djallit eshte shperndare nga nje virus. Megjithate, ne tashme e dime -- dhe do t'ju tregoj tani -- se ne e dime qe ky kancer nuk shperndahet nga virusi. Ne fakt, ky agjent infektues i semundjes ne kete kancer eshte dicka shume e keqe, dhe dicka qe ne nuk e kishim menduar me pare. Por ne vend qe une t'ua shpjegoj cfare eshte kjo, mua me duhen disa minuta per te folur rreth vete kancerit.
Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people around the world every year. One in three people in this room will develop cancer at some stage in their lives. I myself had a tumor removed from my large intestine when I was only 14. Cancer occurs when a single cell in your body acquires a set of random mutations in important genes that cause that cell to start to produce more and more and more copies of itself. Paradoxically, once established, natural selection actually favors the continued growth of cancer. Natural selection is survival of the fittest. And when you have a population of fast-dividing cancer cells, if one of them acquires new mutations, which allow them to grow more quickly, acquire nutrients more successfully, invade the body, they'll be selected for by evolution.
Kanceri eshte nje semundje qe prek miliona njerez ne bote vit per vit. Nje nga tre njerez ne kete dhome do te kete kancer ne ndonje faze te jetes se tij. Une vete kam pasur tumor ne zorren e madhe te cilen ma kane hequr kur une isha vetem 14 vjec. Kanceri formohet kur nje qelize e vetme ne trupin tend peson disa ndryshime ne gjene te rendesishme qe shkaktojne kete qelize te filloje te prodhoje shume e me shume kopje te vetes. Ne menyre paradoksale, sapo formohet, perzgjedhja natyrale favorizon rritjen e vazhdueshme te kancerit. Perzgjedhja natyrale eshte mbijetesa e me te fortit. Dhe kur ke nje popullate qe ka ndarje te shpejte te qelizave kanceroze, nese nje nga ato peson nje mutacion te ri, qe i lejon ato te rriten me shpejt, te marrin ushqimin me suskses, te pushtojne trupin, ato do te perzgjidhen nga evolucioni.
That's why cancer is such a difficult disease to treat. It evolves. Throw a drug at it, and resistant cells will grow back. An amazing fact is that, given the right environment and the right nutrients, a cancer cell has the potential to go on growing forever. However cancer is constrained by living inside our bodies, and its continued growth, its spreading through our bodies and eating away at our tissues, leads to the death of the cancer patient and also to the death of the cancer itself.
Ja pse, kanceri eshte nje semundje e veshtire per t'u trajtuar. Ai evoluon. Jepi nje ilaq, dhe qelizat rezistuese do te rriten perseri. Nje fakt mahnites eshte qe, duke qene ne nje ambjent optimal dhe duke mare ushqimin e nevojshem, nje qelize kanceroze ka fuqine per t'u zhvilluar pergjithmone. Sidoqofte kanceri eshte i detyruar te jetoje brenda trupit tone, dhe rritja e vazhduar etij, shperndarja ne te gjithe trupin dhe te ushqyerit e tyre me indet tona, con ne vdekjen e pacientit me kancer dhe gjithashtu ne vdekjen e vete kancerit.
So cancer could be thought of as a strange, short-lived, self-destructive life form -- an evolutionary dead end. But that is where the Tasmanian devil cancer has acquired an absolutely amazing evolutionary adaptation. And the answer came from studying the Tasmanian devil cancer's DNA. This was work from many people, but I'm going to explain it through a confirmatory experiment that I did a few years ago.
Keshtu qe kanceri mund te mendohet si nje forme e gjalle, jeteshkurter, e cudtitshme -- nje vdekje evolucionare. Por aty eshte ku kaceri i djallit te Tasmanise ka siguruar nja adaptim evolucionar te jashtezakonshem. Dhe pergjigja ardhi nga studimi i ADN-se se djallit te Tasmanise. Ishte pune e bere nga shume njerez, por une une do t'ua shpjegoj ate permes nje eksperimenti qe une kam bere disa vite me pare.
The next slide is going to be gruesome. This is Jonas. He's a Tasmanian devil that we found with a large tumor on his face. And being a geneticist, I'm always interested to look at DNA and mutations. So I took this opportunity to collect some samples from Jonas' tumor and also some samples from other parts of his body. I took these back to the lab. I extracted DNA from them. And when I looked at the sequence of the DNA, and compared the sequence of Jonas' tumor to that of the rest of his body, I discovered that they had a completely different genetic profile. In fact, Jonas and his tumor were as different from each other as you and the person sitting next to you. What this told us was that Jonas' tumor did not arise from cells of his own body. In fact, more genetic profiling told us that this tumor in Jonas actually probably first arose from the cells of a female Tasmanian devil -- and Jonas was clearly a male.
Faqja tjeter do te jete pak e frikshme. Ky eshte Jonas. Ky eshte Djalli i Tasmanise qe kemi gjetur me nje tumor te madh mbi fytyren e tij. Si gjeneticiste qe jam, une jam gjithmone e interesuar per te pare ADN-ne dhe mutacionet. Keshtu qe shfrytezova kete mundesi per te mbledhur disa mostra nga tumori i Jonasit dhe gjithashtu disa mostra nga pjeset tjera te trupit te tij. I dergova ne laborator. Nxorra ADN-ne nga ata. Dhe kur pashe renditjen e ADN-se, dhe e krahasova renditjen e tumorit te Jonasit, me ate te pjeseve tjera te trupit te tij, Zbulova qe ata kishin nje profil gjenetik krejtesosht ndryshe nga njeri-tjetri. Ne fakt, Jonas dhe tumori i tij ishin aq te ndryshim nga njeri tjetri sa ti edhe personi tjeter qe eshte ulur afer teje. Ajo cfare pame ne ishte qe tumori Jonasit nuk doli nga qelizat e trupit te tij. Ne fakt, profilizimet tjera gjenetike na treguan qe tumori i Jonasit ndoshta per here te pare u rrit nga qelizat e nje Djall Tasmanian femer -- dhe Jonasi ishte mashkull.
So how come a tumor that arose from the cells of another individual is growing on Jonas' face? Well the next breakthrough came from studying hundreds of Tasmanian devil cancers from all around Tasmania. We found that all of these cancers shared the same DNA. Think about that for a minute. That means that all of these cancers actually are the same cancer that arose once from one individual devil, that have broken free of that first devil's body and spread through the entire Tasmanian devil population.
Pra si eshte e mundur qe nje tumor qe u rrit nga qeliza e nje kafshe tjeter po rritej ne fytyrene Jonasit ? Zbulimi tjeter i madh erdhi nga studimi i qindra kancereve te Djallit te Tasmanise nga e gjithe Tasmania. Ne zbuluam qe te gjithe keto kancere kishin te njejten ADN. Mendoni nje minute. Kjo do te thote qe te gjithe keto kancere aktualisht jane i njejti kancer qe u zhvillua nga nje djall i vetem , dhe pastaj leshoi trupin e djallit te pare dhe u shpernda ne gjithe popullaten e djajve te Tasmanise.
But how can a cancer spread in a population? Well the final piece of the puzzle came when we remember how devils behave when they meet each other in the wild. They tend to bite each other, often quite ferociously and usually on the face. We think that cancer cells actually come off the tumor, get into the saliva. When the devil bites another devil, it actually physically implants living cancer cells into the next devil, so the tumor continues to grow. So this Tasmanian devil cancer is perhaps the ultimate cancer. It's not constrained by living within the body that gave rise to it. It spreads through the population, has mutations that allow it to evade the immune system, and it's the only cancer that we know of that's threatening an entire species with extinction.
Por si eshte e mundur qe nje kancer te shperdahet ne nje popullate? Pjesa e fundit e ketij misteri erdhi kur menduam se si djajt sillen kur takohen me njeri tjetrin ne xhungel . Ata kafshojne njeri tjetrin, shpesh shume egersisht dhe zakonisht ne fytyre. Ne mendojme qe qelizat kanceroze aktualisht dalin nga tumori dhe futen me peshtyme. Kur nje djall e kafshon tjetrin, ai fizikisht i transmeton qelizat kanceroze, keshtu qe tumori vazhdon te rritet. Keshtu kanceri i djallit te Tasmanise eshte ndoshta kanceri me i rrezikshem. Nuk eshte i detyruar qe te rriten ne nje trup ku ai eshte rritur me te. Ai shperdahet premes popullates, ka mutacione qe e lejon ate te pushtoje sistemin imun, dhe eshte i vetmi kancer qe ne njohim qe kercenon te gjithe speciet me zhdukje .
But if this can happen in Tasmanian devils, why hasn't it happened in other animals or even humans? Well the answer is, it has. This is Kimbo. He's a dog that belongs to a family in Mombasa in Kenya. Last year, his owner noticed some blood trickling from his genital region. She took him to the vet and the vet discovered something quite disgusting. And if you're squeamish, please look away now. He discovered this, a huge bleeding tumor at the base of Kimbo's penis. The vet diagnosed this as transmissible venereal tumor, a sexually transmitted cancer that affects dogs. And just as the Tasmanian devil cancer is contagious through the spread of living cancer cells, so is this dog cancer.
Por nese kjo ndodh me Djallin e Tasmanise, pse nuk ka ndodhur me kafshet e tjera ose me njerzit? Pergjigia eshte, qe ka ndodhur. Ky eshte Kimbo. Ai eshte nje qen qe i perket familjes Mombasa ne Kenya. Vitin qe kaloi, i zoti i tij verejti ca gjak qe rridhte nga pjesa e gjenitaleve. Ajo e coi tek veterinari dhe ai zbuloi dicka shume te tmerrshme. Dhe nese jeni te dobet, ju ltem mos shikoni. Ai zbuloi kete, nje tumor qe rridhte gjak ne fillin e penisit te Kimbos. Ai e diagnostifikoi kete si nje tumor veneral te trasmetueshem, nje kancer i trasmetueshem permes seksit qe prek qente. Dhe si kanceri i djallit te tasmanise qe eshte ngjites permes shperndarjes se qelizave, po edhe keshtu eshte kanceri i qenve.
But this dog cancer is quite remarkable, because it spread all around the world. And in fact, these same cells that are affecting Kimbo here are also found affecting dogs in New York City, in mountain villages in the Himalayas and in Outback Australia. We also believe this cancer might be very old. In fact, genetic profiling tells that it may be tens of thousands of years old, which means that this cancer may have first arisen from the cells of a wolf that lived alongside the Neanderthals. This cancer is remarkable. It's the oldest mammalian-derived life form that we know of. It's a living relic of the distant past.
Por ky kancer qensh eshte mjaft interesant, sepse ai shperdahet ne te gjithe boten. Dhe ne fakt, kete qeliza te njejta qe kane prekur Kimbon ketu jane gjetur qe kane prekur edhe qene te tjere ne New York, ne fshtara malore te Himalajas dhe deri ne Australi. Ne gjithashtu besojme qe kanceri mund te jete shume i vjeter. Ne fakt, profili gjenetik na tregon qe mund te jete dhjetera mijera vjet i vjeter, qe do te thote qe ky kancer mund ne fillim te jete zhvilluar nga qelizat e nje ujku qe ka jetuar ne kohen e Neandertaleve. Kanceri eshte i jashtezakonshem. Eshte forma me e vjeter e gjalle qe del nga gjitaret qe ne e njohim. Eshte nje relike e gjalle nga nje e kaluar e larget.
So we've seen that this can happen in animals. Could cancers be contagious between people? Well this is a question which fascinated Chester Southam, a cancer doctor in the 1950s. Ad he decided to put this to the test by actually deliberately inoculating people with cancer from somebody else. And this is a photograph of Dr. Southam in 1957 injecting cancer into a volunteer, who in this case was an inmate in Ohio State Penitentiary. Most of the people that Dr. Southam injected did not go on to develop cancer from the injected cells. But a small number of them did, and they were mostly people who were otherwise ill -- whose immune systems were probably compromised.
Keshtu qe ne pame qe kjo mund te ndodhi tek kafshet. A mund te jete kanceri ngjites edhe tek njerzit? Kjo eshte nje pyetje qe ka magjepsur Chester Southam, nje doktor kanceri ne vitet e 1950-ta. Ai vendosi ta testoje kete duke vaksinuar njerezit me kancer te dikujt tjeter. Dhe kjo eshtenje fotografi e Dr. Southam ne 1957 duke injektuar kancerin tek nje vullnetar, qe ne kete rast ishte i burgosur ne Penitenciarin e Ohajos. Shumica e njerezve qe Dr. Southam injektoi nuk zhvilluan kancerin nga qelizat e injektuara. Por nje numer i vogel i tyre po, dhe keta ishin njerez qe ishin te semure -- sistemi imun i te cileve ishte kompromituar.
What this tells us, ethical issues aside, is that ... (Laughter) it's probably extremely rare for cancers to be transferred between people. However, under some circumstances, it can happen. And I think that this is something that oncologists and epidemiologists should be aware of in the future.
Cfare na tregon kjo, duke lene anash ceshjet etike, eshte se .... ( Te qeshura ) eshte shume e rralle qe kanceret te transferohen permes njerezve. Megjithate, ne disa rethana, mund te ndodhi. Dhe une mendoj qe kjo eshte dicka qe onkologjistet dhe epidomiologjistet duke ta kene parasysh ne te ardhmen.
So just finally, cancer is an inevitable outcome of the ability of our cells to divide and to adapt to their environments. But that does not mean that we should give up hope in the fight against cancer. In fact, I believe, given more knowledge of the complex evolutionary processes that drive cancer's growth, we can defeat cancer. My personal aim is to defeat the Tasmanian devil cancer. Let's prevent the Tasmanian devil from being the first animal to go extinct from cancer.
Dhe per fund, kanceri eshte nje rezultat i pa shmangshem i aftesise se qelizave tona per t'u ndare dhe per t'iu adaptuar mjedisit te tyre. Por kjo nuk do te thote qe ne nuk duhet te heqim dore nga shpresa ne luften kunder kancerit. Ne fakt, une besoj, duke pasur njohurite rreth proceseve komplekse evolucionare qe shkaktojne rritjen e kancerit, ne mund ta mundim ate. Qellimi im personal eshte te mposht kancerin e djallit te Tasmanise. Le te parandalojme Djallin e tasmanise per te qene e para kafshe qe mund te zhduket nga kanceri.
Thank you.
Faleminderit.
(Applause)
( Duatrokitje )