By raising your hand, how many of you know at least one person on the screen? Wow, it's almost a full house. It's true, they are very famous in their fields. And do you know what all of them have in common? They all died of pancreatic cancer. However, although it's very, very sad this news, it's also thanks to their personal stories that we have raised awareness of how lethal this disease can be.
Levantade a man os que recoñezades algunha das caras da pantalla... Uauh! Case todo o mundo! Si, todas esas persoas son famosas nos seus campos. E sabedes qué teñen en común? Todas elas morreron de cancro de páncreas. Aínda que é unha noticia moi triste, grazas ás súas historias individuais somos máis conscientes do letal que pode ser esta enfermidade.
It's become the third cause of cancer deaths, and only eight percent of the patients will survive beyond five years. That's a very tiny number, especially if you compare it with breast cancer, where the survival rate is almost 90 percent. So it doesn't really come as a surprise that being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer means facing an almost certain death sentence. What's shocking, though, is that in the last 40 years, this number hasn't changed a bit, while much more progress has been made with other types of tumors. So how can we make pancreatic cancer treatment more effective? As a biomedical entrepreneur, I like to work on problems that seem impossible, understanding their limitations and trying to find new, innovative solutions that can change their outcome.
É a terceira causa de morte por cáncer, e tan só o 8% dos enfermos sobrevivirá máis de cinco anos. É unha porcentaxe moi pequena, sobre todo se a comparas coa do cancro de mama, onde temos case un 90% de taxa de supervivencia. Non é, pois, unha sorpresa, que ser diagnosticado de cancro de páncreas signifique enfrontarse, practicamente, a unha sentenza de morte. Porén, o que resulta sorprendente é que nos últimos 40 anos esa porcentaxe non minguara nada, mentres que si se fixeron moitos progresos con outros tipos de tumor. Entón, como podemos facer máis efectivo o tratamento de cancro pancreático? Como emprendedora en biomedicina, gústame traballar en desafíos que parecen imposíbeis; gústame entender as súas limitacións e procurar atopar solucións innovadoras que poidan cambiar o resultado lóxico.
The first piece of bad news with pancreatic cancer is that your pancreas is in the middle of your belly, literally. It's depicted in orange on the screen. But you can barely see it until I remove all the other organs in front. It's also surrounded by many other vital organs, like the liver, the stomach, the bile duct. And the ability of the tumor to grow into those organs is the reason why pancreatic cancer is one of the most painful tumor types. The hard-to-reach location also prevents the doctor from surgically removing it, as is routinely done for breast cancer, for example. So all of these reasons leave chemotherapy as the only option for the pancreatic cancer patient.
A primeira má noticia sobre o cancro de páncreas é que este órgano atópase, literalmente, no medio do ventre. Está pintado de laranxa na pantalla, pero apenas poderás velo ata que retire tódolos outros órganos de diante. O páncreas tamén está rodeado por moitos outros órganos vitais, como o fígado, o estómago ou o conduto biliar. A capacidade que ten o tumor de medrar neses órganos é a razón pola que o cancro de páncreas é un dos tumores máis dolorosos. A dificultade para localizalo tamén impide que o médico o extirpe mediante cirurxía, procedemento xa rutineiro co cancro de mama, por exemplo. Por todas estas razóns, a quimioterapia é a única opción para o paciente de cancro de páncreas.
This brings us to the second piece of bad news. Pancreatic cancer tumors have very few blood vessels. Why should we care about the blood vessel of a tumor? Let's think for a second how chemotherapy works. The drug is injected in the vein and it navigates throughout the body until it reaches the tumor site. It's like driving on a highway, trying to reach a destination. But what if your destination doesn't have an exit on the highway? You will never get there. And that's exactly the same problem for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer. The drugs navigate throughout all of your body. They will reach healthy organs, resulting in high toxic effect for the patients overall, but very little will go to the tumor. Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.
Isto lévanos á segunda má noticia... Os tumores no páncreas teñen moi poucos vasos sanguíneos. Pero, por que deberían importarnos os vasos sanguíneos dun tumor? Pensemos durante un segundo en como funciona a quimioterapia: O fármaco inxéctase na vea e navega polo corpo ata acadar o lugar do tumor. É como conducir nunha autovía, tentando chegar a un destino. Que pasa se na estrada non existe unha saída para o teu destino? Que non chegarás nunca. Estamos exactamente ante o mesmo problema coa quimioterapia e o cancro de páncreas. As medicinas percorren todo o corpo, chegarán a órganos sans, producindo efectos moi tóxicos para a saúde xeral do paciente, pero moi pouco fármaco chegará ao tumor. Daquela, a eficacia é moi limitada.
To me, it seems very counterintuitive to have a whole-body treatment to target a specific organ. However, in the last 40 years, a lot of money, research and effort have gone towards finding new, powerful drugs to treat pancreatic cancer, but nothing has been done in changing the way we deliver them to the patient.
Paréceme bastante contraditorio medicar todo o corpo para curar un órgano específico. Con todo, nos últimos 40 anos destináronse moitos cartos, investigacións e esforzos a encontrar novos e potentes fármacos contra o cancro de páncreas, pero nada se fixo para cambiar a maneira en que llos subministramos ao paciente.
So after two pieces of bad news, I'm going to give you good news, hopefully. With a collaborator at MIT and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, we have revolutionized the way we treat cancer by making localized drug delivery a reality. We are basically parachuting you on top of your destination, avoiding your having to drive all around the highway. We have embedded the drug into devices that look like this one. They are flexible enough that they can be folded to fit into the catheter, so the doctor can implant it directly on top of the tumor with minimally invasive surgery. But they are solid enough that once they are positioned on top of the tumor, they will act as a cage. They will actually physically prevent the tumor from entering other organs, controlling the metastasis.
Ben, despois de dúas más noticias, vouvos dar, espero, boas novas. Xunto cun colaborador do MIT e o Hospital Xeral de Massachusetts en Boston, vimos de revolucionar a forma na que tratamos o cáncer, facendo posible enviar o medicamento ao lugar preciso. Basicamente, o que facemos é lanzarte en paracaídas enriba do teu destino, aforrándoche conducir todo ao redor da autovía. O que fixemos foi inserir o fármaco en dispositivos parecidos a este, o bastante flexíbeis para seren dobrados e encaixar no catéter; así o médico pode implantalo directamente sobre o tumor cunha cirurxía minimamente invasiva. Estes dispositivos son o bastante sólidos para que, unha vez colocados encima do tumor, actúen coma unha gaiola, evitando fisicamente que o tumor se introduza noutros órganos, controlando a metástase.
The devices are also biodegradable. That means that once in the body, they start dissolving, delivering the drug only locally, slowly and more effectively than what is done with the current whole-body treatment. In pre-clinical study, we have demonstrated that this localized approach is able to improve by 12 times the response to treatment.
Os dispositivos tamén son biodegradábeis, polo que unha vez dentro do corpo, comezan a disolverse, soltando a medicina no lugar exacto, lentamente e con máis eficacia do que se facía ata agora tratando todo o corpo. Nun estudo preclínico demostramos que este achegamento localizado é capaz de multiplicar por 12 a resposta ao tratamento.
So we took a drug that is already known and by just delivering it locally where it's needed the most, we allow a response that is 12 times more powerful, reducing the systemic toxic effect. We are working relentlessly to bring this technology to the next level. We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing and the animal model required prior to asking the FDA for approval for clinical trials.
Así que collemos un fármaco xa coñecido e só por aplicalo onde é realmente máis necesario, obtemos unha resposta 12 veces máis potente, que reduce o efecto tóxico para o corpo. Estamos traballando arreo en mellorar esta tecnoloxía. Estamos a piques de rematar os estudos preclínicos e os tests en animais requiridos antes de solicita-la aprobación do Goberno para ensaios clínicos.
Currently, the majority of patients will die from pancreatic cancer. We are hoping that one day, we can reduce their pain, extend their life and potentially make pancreatic cancer a curable disease.
Hoxe en día, a maioría dos pacientes con cancro de páncreas morre. Confiamos en que un día poidamos atenua-la súa dor, prolonga-las súas vidas, e quizais, facer do cancro de páncreas unha enfermidade curábel.
By rethinking the way we deliver the drug, we don't only make it more powerful and less toxic, we are also opening the door to finding new innovative solutions for almost all other impossible problems in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.
Repensando a forma na que se aplica o fármaco, non só o facemos máis potente e menos tóxico, senón que abrimo-la porta para atopar novas solucións a case tódolos outros problemas imposíbeis para os pacientes de cancro de páncreas e moitos outros.
Thank you very much.
Moitas grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)