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.
在座各位識得至少一個屏幕上面嘅人 請舉手 哇,基本上每個人都舉咗 佢哋喺自己嘅領域都好出名 你哋知唔知佢哋有咩共同點? 佢哋都係死於胰腺癌 雖然係一件好唔好嘅事 但係都要多謝人哋報導佢哋嘅故仔 畀我哋注意到胰腺癌可以有幾致命
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.
胰臟癌排喺癌症死因嘅第三位 只有百分之八嘅病人有超過五年夀命 相比乳癌生存率接近百分之九十 呢個係一個好細嘅數字 所以當病人畀醫生診斷爲胰腺癌之後 病人一啲都唔感到意外 因為差唔多畀人判咗死刑 得人驚嘅係過去四十年 呢個數字冇咩嘢變化 但係其他腫瘤嘅治療 已經有好大嘅進展 所以我哋點樣更有效咁治療胰腺癌? 身為一個生物醫學嘅企業家 我鍾意解決嗰啲好似解決唔到嘅問題 通過了解佢哋嘅局限 嘗試搵出創新嘅方法,改寫個結局
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.
第一件關於胰腺癌嘅壞消息 就係你嘅胰腺直情喺你腹部中間 它喺屏幕上嘅橙色位置 但係你幾乎睇唔到佢 除非我將前面其他器官拎走 但佢又畀好多重要嘅器官包圍住 例如肝、胃、膽管 而且腫瘤可以生係呢啲器官 所以點解胰腺癌係 病人其中一個最痛苦嘅腫瘤 佢嘅位置難以接近 亦令醫生好難用手術移除佢 醫生成日為其他 好似乳癌咁嘅腫瘤做手術 因為呢啲原因 胰腺癌病人只可以揀化療
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.
跟住講第二個壞消息 胰腺癌腫瘤有好少血管 點解我哋要關心一個腫瘤嘅血管? 等我哋嚟諗下化療係點樣做嘢嘅 藥物被注射入靜脈之後 藥物流過我哋嘅身體直至去到腫瘤嗰度 好似喺高速公路開車,努力駛去目的地 但係如果公路冇出口去你嘅目的地呢? 你永遠都去唔到 醫生處理化療同胰腺癌 就正正面對相同嘅問題 藥物流過你嘅身體 佢哋會到達一啲健康嘅器官 令病人整體上出現高度中毒反應 但係藥物好少會去到腫瘤嗰度 所以療效好有限
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.
我覺得為咗一個器官而要全身治療 好似違反常理咁 但係過去嘅四十年 我哋洗咗好多錢、做研究 同努力咁去搵 新嘅、強效嘅藥物去醫胰腺癌 但我哋將藥物 送入病人身體嘅方法冇改過
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.
聽咗兩個壞消息之後 我會話你知好消息 我哋同麻省理工大學 同埋波士頓嘅麻省總醫院合作 徹底改變治療癌症嘅方法 實現藥物局部輸送 我哋基本上將你空降到你要嘅目的地 而唔使你行成條高速公路 我哋將藥物注入咗類似呢啲裝置入面 佢哋靈活到可以摺疊 適合伸入導管裡面 所以醫生可以直接將裝置 植入到腫瘤上面 然後做最輕微嘅入侵性手術 但係佢哋一旦畀人植入腫瘤上面 就會好堅固,而且會好似雀籠咁 其實佢哋生理上 係防止腫瘤入侵其他器官 控制腫瘤轉移
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.
呢啲裝置仲係生物分解 即是佢哋一旦擺喺身體入面 佢哋就會開始被分解 比起現時全身治療 藥物更加局部、慢慢、有效咁輸送 我哋喺臨牀前嘅研究已經證實 呢個局部性方式 有效提高治療效果十二倍
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.
所以我哋用一隻已知嘅藥物 只係將佢放係最需要佢嘅地方 我哋有咗十二倍嘅療效 仲減少身體中毒反應 我哋好努力咁將呢項技術 帶入下一階段 我哋就嚟做完臨牀前試驗同動物試驗 做咗呢兩個先可以向美國藥物管理局 申請做臨牀試驗
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.
宜家大多數胰腺癌病人都冇得醫 我哋希望將來有一日 可以減輕佢哋嘅痛苦,延長佢哋嘅生命 而且希望胰腺癌 將來變成可以亦醫返好嘅病
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.
我哋因為反思輸送藥物嘅方式 我哋唔單止令治療更有效同少啲毒性 仲同時為胰腺癌同其他癌症 幾乎所有唔可能解決嘅問題 打開通往創新療法嘅大門
Thank you very much.
多謝大家
(Applause)
(掌聲)