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 知道至少一个屏幕中所示的人,请举手 哇,基本上每个人都举手了 没错,他们在各自的领域都十分有名 你们知道他们有什么共同点吗? 他们都死于胰腺癌 尽管这特别特别可悲 但也正是由于他们的自身经历 让我们意识到胰腺癌有多致命
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.
胰腺癌已成为癌症致死的第三大原因 病人的五年及以上存活率只有百分之八 这个比例是极小的 尤其是和存活率接近90%的乳腺癌相比 所以,被诊断得了胰腺癌 意味着几乎是被判了死刑 这也就不足为怪了 然而,让人震惊的是 在过去的40年,这个数字一点都没有变 而其它肿瘤的治疗已经有了长足进步 那么我们该如何让胰腺癌治疗更有效呢? 作为一名生物医学企业家 我希望去解决那些看起来不可能解决的问题 了解那些问题的限制因素 并找到新的、创新的解决方案 去改变结果
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.
第一个关于胰腺癌的坏消息是 胰腺正好位于腹部的中间位置 如屏幕上橙色部分所示 但是如果我不把胰腺前面的其它器官移开 你几乎看不到它 而且它被很多其它重要的器官包围着 譬如肝、胃、胆管 肿瘤会扩散到这些器官 这也胰腺癌是最痛苦的肿瘤之一的原因 另外,胰腺难以企及的位置 使得医生很难采取例行的治疗方式 例如对肺癌,通过手术摘除肿瘤 上述各种原因 使得化疗成为了胰腺癌患者的唯一选择
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.
第二个坏消息是 胰腺癌肿瘤的血管极少 为什么我们要关心肿瘤的血管呢? 让我们想想化疗的过程 药物被注入静脉 然后流遍整个身体直到到达肿瘤处 这就像在高速路上行驶 努力到达目的地一样 如果你的目的地在高速路上没有出口怎么办? 你将永远到不了目的地 对于化疗和胰腺癌来说也一样 药物流遍你的整个身体 它们进入了健康器官 给病人整体带来很高的毒副作用 但是极少药物作用到肿瘤 因此治疗效果很有限
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.
我认为,为了治疗某一个器官而对全身采取治疗 是非常有悖常理的 然而,在过去的40年里 大量的金钱、研究、努力被投入到 找寻新的、药效更强的治疗胰腺癌的药物 而对于改变治疗病人的手段 却没有任何投入
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.
说完两个坏消息 我想告诉你们一个好消息,希望是的 通过麻省理工大学和位于波士顿的 麻省总医院的合作研究 我们已经革新了治疗癌症的方式 使得定位给药成为现实 总的来说就是,我们用降落伞将你在目的地上方直接投送出去 避免你得在高速路上七拐八拐 我们将药物嵌入类似这样的装置中 它们极为柔软 可以将它们折叠放入导管中 医生可以通过微创手术 将它直接植入肿瘤上方 同时这种装置又足够坚固 一旦它们被放置到肿瘤上 它们就像一个笼子 通过物理方式阻止肿瘤进入到其它器官 从而控制癌细胞扩散
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.
另外,这种装置是可生物降解的 也就是说,一旦进入人体 它们就开始降解 定点地、缓慢地释放药物 相比于目前的全身治疗方式 这种给药方式更加有效 临床前研究表明 这种定位给药方式 可以提升12倍治疗效果
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.
我们使用某已知药物 将它定点放于最需要的部位 使得治疗效果增强了12倍 并且减少了对身体系统的毒副作用 我们正致力于让这项技术更上一层楼 我们即将完成临床前测试 和向食品药品监督管理局申请临床试验前 规定的动物实验
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.
目前,绝大部分胰腺癌患者都会死于此病 我们希望,有一天 我们可以减轻他们的痛苦,延长他们的生命 使胰腺癌成为一种可治愈的疾病
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.
反思我们的给药方式 我们不仅使其更有效、更小副作用 我们也为胰腺癌患者和更多其他患者 所面临的各种不可能解决的问题 打开了找寻革新解决方案的大门
Thank you very much.
谢谢大家
(Applause)