I have a tendency to assume the worst, and once in a while, this habit plays tricks on me. For example, if I feel unexpected pain in my body that I have not experienced before and that I cannot attribute, then all of a sudden, my mind might turn a tense back into heart disease or calf muscle pain into deep vein thrombosis. But so far, I haven't been diagnosed with any deadly or incurable disease. Sometimes things just hurt for no clear reason.
我倾向于把事情往坏了想, 而这种想法偶尔会把我弄糊涂。 举例来说,如果我的身体 突然感到疼痛, 这种疼痛前所未有,并且我不清楚病因, 那么我会突然认为背部剧痛 是由心脏病所致, 或者因为小腿肌肉疼痛 而怀疑自己有了深部静脉血栓。 但至今为止,我还没被确诊 患有任何致命或者难以治愈的疾病。 有时这种事实会毫无缘由地使我伤心。
But not everyone is as lucky as me. Every year, more than 50 million people die worldwide. Especially in high-income economies like ours, a large fraction of deaths is caused by slowly progressing diseases: heart disease, chronic lung disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, just to name a few.
但并不是所有人都像我这么幸运。 每年,世界上都有超过五千万人死去。 尤其像我们这种高收入经济体里, 慢性病致死占了很大一部分: 心脏病,慢性肺病,癌症, 阿尔兹海默症,糖尿病, 这些只是其中一小部分例子。
Now, humanity has made tremendous progress in diagnosing and treating many of these. But we are at a stage where further advancement in health cannot be achieved only by developing new treatments. And this becomes evident when we look at one aspect that many of these diseases have in common: the probability for successful treatment strongly depends on when treatment is started. But a disease is typically only detected once symptoms occur. The problem here is that, in fact, many diseases can remain asymptomatic, hence undetected, for a long period of time. Because of this, there is a persisting need for new ways of detecting disease at early stage, way before any symptoms occur. In health care, this is called screening.
如今,人类已经在慢性病确诊 和治疗上取得了显著进展。 但就现阶段而言,医学上的进一步突破 不能只依赖于研发新的治疗方法。 而当我们观察所有 这些疾病的一个共同点时, 这一点就变得尤为明显: 治疗的成功率 很大程度上取决于何时开展治疗。 但是一般来说,疾病只有 在症状显现后才会被确诊。 这里的问题在于,实际上, 很多疾病一直没有临床症状, 所以很长一段时间都不会被检测出来。 因此,在远早于症状显现出来前, 便能检测出早期疾病的新治疗方法 变得极为需要。 在医疗保健上,这被称为筛检。
And as defined by the World Health Organization, screening is "the presumptive identification of unrecognized disease in an apparently healthy person, by means of tests ... that can be applied rapidly and easily ..." That's a long definition, so let me repeat it: identification of unrecognized disease in an apparently healthy person by means of tests that can be applied both rapidly and easily. And I want to put special emphasis on the words "rapidly" and "easily" because many of the existing screening methods are exactly the opposite. And those of you who have undergone colonoscopy as part of a screening program for colorectal cancer will know what I mean.
根据世界卫生组织(WHO)的定义, 筛检意为“在看似健康的人身上, 通过快速简单的...多种检测手段... 得出的未确诊疾病的假定诊断。” 这段定义非常长,所以我再重复一遍: 在看似健康的人身上, 通过多种快速简单的检测手段 得出的未确诊疾病的假定诊断。 我想着重强调“快速”和“简单”这两个词, 因为现阶段的很多筛检方法 并没做到这两点。 而在座的观众中做过 直肠癌筛检程序之一, 即结肠镜检查的人 将会明白我的话中之意。
Obviously, there's a variety of medical tools available to perform screening tests. This ranges from imaging techniques such as radiography or magnetic resonance imaging to the analysis of blood or tissue. We have all had such tests. But there's one medium that for long has been overlooked: a medium that is easily accessible, basically nondepletable, and it holds tremendous promise for medical analysis. And that is our breath.
显而易见,目前有许许多多 可应用于筛检的医学手段。 其中包括X射线放射成像、 磁共振成像、 还有血液和组织分析。 我们一直都拥有这些技术。 但有一个长期被忽视的媒介: 一个可轻易接触到的, 基本无损耗的, 拥有巨大前景的医学分析媒介。 这便是我们的呼气。
Human breath is essentially composed of five components: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and argon. But besides these five, there are hundreds of other components that are present in very low quantity. These are called volatile organic compounds, and we release hundreds, even thousands of them every time we exhale. The analysis of these volatile organic compounds in our breath is called breath analysis. In fact, I believe that many of you have already experienced breath analysis. Imagine: you're driving home late at night, when suddenly, there's a friendly police officer who asks you kindly but firmly to pull over and blow into a device like this one. This is an alcohol breath tester that is used to measure the ethanol concentration in your breath and determine whether driving in your condition is a clever idea. Now, I'd say my driving was pretty good, but let me check.
人类呼出的气体基本由五个部分组成: 氮、氧、二氧化碳、水和氩。 除此之外,还有其它上百种 含量极低的成分。 它们是挥发性有机物质, 而我们每次呼气都会释放 成百甚至上千种有机物质。 以这些挥发性有机物为对象的分析 被称为呼气分析。 事实上,我相信在座的许多人 都已经做过呼气分析。 试想一下:你在深夜开车回家, 突然这时,有位亲切的警官, 和善却态度坚决地要求你 靠边停车,并朝这个仪器里呼气。 这是酒精呼气检测仪, 用于测量呼出气体中的酒精含量 以评估你此时的身体条件 是否允许开车。 我觉得我的驾驶水平很不错, 但让我现在检测一下。
(Beep)
(响声)
0.0, so nothing to worry about, all fine.
0.0,所以没什么好担心的,一切正常。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now imagine a device like this one, that does not only measure alcohol levels in your breath, but that detects diseases like the ones I've shown you and potentially many more. The concept of correlating the smell of a person's breath with certain medical conditions, in fact, dates back to Ancient Greece. But only recently, research efforts on breath analysis have skyrocketed, and what once was a dream is now becoming reality. And let me pull up this list again that I showed you earlier. For the majority of diseases listed here, there's substantial scientific evidence suggesting that the disease could be detected by breath analysis.
现在试想这样一台仪器, 它不仅可以检测呼气中的酒精含量, 还可以检测出像我 刚刚介绍过的那样的疾病, 甚至可能检测出更多种。 这种将人类呼气中的气味 和他的某种健康状况 所联系起来的概念, 实际上起源于古希腊。 但直到最近,关于呼气分析的 研究成果才有了飞跃性的进展, 曾经只存在于想象中的事物 如今变成了事实。 我现在再展示一下刚才的那张单子。 有大量证据表明, 这张单子中的大部分疾病, 可以通过呼气分析检测到。
But how does it work, exactly? The essential part is a sensor device that detects the volatile organic compounds in our breath. Simply put: when exposed to a breath sample, the sensor outputs a complex signature that results from the mixture of volatile organic compounds that we exhale. Now, this signature represents a fingerprint of your metabolism, your microbiome and the biochemical processes that occur in your body. If you have a disease, your organism will change, and so will the composition of your exhaled breath. And then the only thing that is left to do is to correlate a certain signature with the presence or absence of certain medical conditions.
但呼气分析到底是如何检测的? 分析仪器里必不可缺的部分是 可以检测呼气中挥发性有机物的感应器。 简单地说,当把此装置置于呼气样本中, 它便会输出复杂的信号, 这些信号便是来源于 我们呼气中的挥发性有机物。 而这些信号就好比你体内的新陈代谢, 微生物菌群, 以及生化过程的“指纹”。 如果你患有某种疾病, 你的机体会产生变化, 这也包括了呼出气体的成分。 接下来该做的,便是把某个信号 与某项身体状况的存在与否给联系起来。
The technology promises several undeniable benefits. Firstly, the sensor can be miniaturized and integrated into small, handheld devices like this alcohol breath tester. This would allow the test to be used in many different settings and even at home, so that a visit at the doctor's office is not needed each time a test shall be performed.
这项技术具备一些不可忽视的优点。 首先,感应器可以微型化, 并被整合进小型便携设备, 比如酒精呼气检测仪。 这使得测试可在很多不同情境下, 甚至在家里完成, 如此一来,每次检测 便没必要去医生办公室才能完成了。
Secondly, breath analysis is noninvasive and can be as simple as blowing into an alcohol breath tester. Such simplicity and ease of use would reduce patient burden and provide an incentive for broad adoption of the technology.
其次,呼气分析是无创的, 就像朝酒精检测仪里吹气那样简单。 此种简单且易操作的特点 可以减轻病人的负担, 还可以促进这项技术的推广。
And thirdly, the technology is so flexible that the same device could be used to detect a broad range of medical conditions. Breath analysis could be used to screen for multiple diseases at the same time. Nowadays, each disease typically requires a different medical tool to perform a screening test. But this means you can only find what you're looking for.
另外,这项技术的灵活性 使得仪器能被应用于 检测很多方面的身体状况。 呼气检测可以同时筛检多种疾病。 如今,每种疾病的筛检 需要用到不同医疗仪器。 但这意味这你只能 有目的的进行疾病监测。
With all of these features, breath analysis is predestined to deliver what many traditional screening tests are lacking. And most importantly, all of these features should eventually provide us with a platform for medical analysis that can operate at attractively low cost per test. On the contrary, existing medical tools often lead to rather high cost per test. Then, in order to keep costs down, the number of tests needs to be restricted, and this means (a) that the tests can only be performed on a narrow part of the population, for example, the high-risk population; and (b) that the number of tests per person needs to be kept at a minimum. But wouldn't it actually be beneficial if the test was performed on a larger group of people, and more often and over a longer period of time for each individual? Especially the latter would give access to something very valuable that is called longitudinal data.
有了这些特点,呼气分析就、 就可以弥补传统筛检里的不足。 而最重要的是, 所有这些特点最终可提供 一个平均花费相当低的 医疗分析平台。 相较之下,现在的医疗仪器 常常意味着高昂的成本。 为了降低成本, 检测的数量便被限制, 这说明:(a) 检测只能提供给 一小部分人,比如高危人群; (b) 每人的检测数要被控制在最少。 但如果这些检测被提供给 更多的人,甚至长此以往 提供给每一个人, 这样岂不是更有益? 尤其是后一种情况,将会在最后 提供一种名为“纵向数据”的宝贵数据。
Longitudinal data is a data set that tracks the same patient over the course of many months or years. Nowadays, medical decisions are often based on a limited data set, where only a glimpse of a patient's medical history is available for decision-making. In such a case, abnormalities are typically detected by comparing a patient's health profile to the average health profile of a reference population. Longitudinal data would open up a new dimension and allow abnormalities to be detected based on a patient's own medical history. This will pave the way for personalized treatment.
纵向数据是一种跟踪记录同一个病人 在数月或数年内情况的数据组。 如今,医疗上的决策 常受有限数据组限制, 仅仅只有病人的一部分病史 对决策有帮助。 在这种情况下, 病人身体的异常一般是通过 将病人的健康概貌 和参考组的平均健康概貌作比较。 纵向数据将会开拓出新的维度, 并以病人自己的病史为依据 检测出身体异常。 这将会为个性化治疗开辟道路。
Sounds pretty great, right? Now you will certainly have a question that is something like, "If the technology is as great as he says, then why aren't we using it today?" And the only answer I can give you is: not everything is as easy as it sounds. There are technical challenges, for example. There's the need for extremely reliable sensors that can detect mixtures of volatile organic compounds with sufficient reproducibility. And another technical challenge is this: How do you sample a person's breath in a very defined manner so that the sampling process itself does not alter the result of the analysis? And there's the need for data. Breath analysis needs to be validated in clinical trials, and enough data needs to be collected so that individual conditions can be measured against baselines. Breath analysis can only succeed if a large enough data set can be generated and made available for broad use.
这听起来很棒,对吧? 现在,你肯定会冒出一个问题: “如果这项技术真的有他说得那么好, 为什么现在还没被应用呢?” 我能给出的唯一答复是: 并不是所有事情都像听起来那么简单。 比如,现阶段还存在着技术上的难关。 我们需要非常可靠的感应器, 可靠到以足够的再现性 检测到挥发性有机混合气体。 另一个技术难关是这个: 要如何明确清楚地抽样调查 一个人呼出的气体, 以保证抽样过程本身 不会改变分析结果呢? 另外,我们还需要数据。 呼气分析需在医疗测试中进行验证, 同时需要收集足够的数据, 以保证个体的身体状况 可通过对比基准线来检测。 呼气分析只有在 能生成大量的数据组 并广泛应用的情况下才能成功。
If breath analysis holds up to its promises, this is a technology that could truly aid us to transform our health care system -- transform it from a reactive system where treatment is triggered by symptoms of disease to a proactive system, where disease detection, diagnosis and treatment can happen at early stage, way before any symptoms occur.
如果呼气分析有望成功, 这将会成为能真正帮助我们 改革医疗系统的技术—— 从一个只有在病症显现时 才能给出治疗的应激系统, 转变成主动出击的系统, 而在这个系统里, 疾病的检测、诊断和治疗 可在疾病早期就被应用, 远早于病症显现之时。
Now this brings me to my last point, and it's a fundamental one. What exactly is a disease? Imagine that breath analysis can be commercialized as I describe it, and early detection becomes routine. A problem that remains is, in fact, a problem that any screening activity has to face because, for many diseases, it is often impossible to predict with sufficient certainty whether the disease would ever cause any symptoms or put a person's life at risk. This is called overdiagnosis, and it leads to a dilemma. If a disease is identified, you could decide not to treat it because there's a certain probability that you would never suffer from it. But how much would you suffer just from knowing that you have a potentially deadly disease? And wouldn't you actually regret that the disease was detected in the first place?
这便让我将演讲引向最后一点, 也是最基础的一点。 疾病到底是什么? 想象一下,呼吸分析 就像我描述的那样被商业化, 早期检测成为常规流程。 还留有的一个问题,实际上, 是任何筛检手段都需要面对的问题, 因为,对于大多数疾病而言, 想要以足够的肯定性来检测 此种疾病是否会显现症状, 或使病人命悬一线, 通常是不可能的。 这被称为“过度诊断”, 而它会将我们置于困境。 如果某种疾病被检测出来, 你可以决定不去治疗它, 因为有可能病人 从不会因这疾病而受煎熬。 但如果你只知道可能得了绝症, 这又会让你受到何种程度的煎熬呢? 你会不会因为疾病 从一开始就被检测出来 而感到后悔呢?
Your second option is to undergo early treatment with the hope for curing it. But often, this would not come without side effects.
你的第二种选择是 抱着能够被治好的希望 去接受早期治疗。 但是,这经常会带来副作用。
To be precise: the bigger problem is not overdiagnosis, it's overtreatment, because not every disease has to be treated immediately just because a treatment is available. The increasing adoption of routine screening will raise the question: What do we call a disease that can rationalize treatment, and what is just an abnormality that should not be a source of concern? My hopes are that routine screening using breath analysis can provide enough data and insight so that at some point, we'll be able to break this dilemma and predict with sufficient certainty whether and when to treat at early stage.
准确地来说: 更大的问题并不是过度诊断, 而是过度治疗, 因为并不是仅因为 这种疾病有治疗方法 就要去马上接受治疗。 频繁进行常规筛检 会引发一个问题: 我们该如何判断 某种疾病是需要治疗, 还是视它为不需要担心的身体异常? 我希望应用呼气分析的常规筛检 可以提供充足的数据和见解, 能让我们以后打破僵局, 有充分的把握来预测 此疾病是否需要在早期进行治疗。
Our breath and the mixture of volatile organic compounds that we exhale hold tremendous amounts of information on our physiological condition. With what we know today, we have only scratched the surface. As we collect more and more data and breath profiles across the population, including all varieties of gender, age, origin and lifestyle, the power of breath analysis should increase. And eventually, breath analysis should provide us with a powerful tool not only to proactively detect specific diseases but to predict and ultimately prevent them. And this should be enough motivation to embrace the opportunities and challenges that breath analysis can provide, even for people that are not part-time hypochondriacs like me.
我们的呼气和其中包含的挥发性有机物 蕴含着透露我们身体状况的丰富信息。 我们目前的认识只是九牛一毛。 随着我们在人群中收集到 越来越多的数据和呼吸信息, 包括各种性别、年龄、种族和生活方式, 呼气分析的权威性将会增强。 最终,呼气分析将成为强有力的工具, 它不仅能尽早检测出某种疾病, 还可以预测和最终预防疾病。 这应该能敦促我们 接受呼气分析所带来的 机遇和挑战, 甚至包括不同于我种 偶发疑病症患者的人。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)