Cancer genetics
癌症遗传学
Gene therapy
基因疗法
Genetic mutations predict which cancers willrespond to treatment
基因突变将预测某种治疗会对哪些癌症起作用
THE International Cancer Genome Consortium, an alliance of laboratories that is trying toproduce a definitive list of the genetic mutations that cause cancer,
国际癌症基因组协作组是试图建立一份会引起癌症的基因突变完整清单的实验室联盟,
is accumulating data at an astonishing rate.
它积累数据的速度让人吃惊。
About 3,000 individual breast tumours, for example, have now had their genotypespublished.
例如,它已经发表了大约3000种不同的乳房肿瘤的基因型。
But these data will not, by themselves, help patients.
但光凭这些数据本身无法帮助患者。
For that, they have to be collected inthe context of a drug trial.
要医治病人,人们必须结合药物试验采集数据。
And this is just what Matthew Ellis and his colleagues at Washington University in St Louishave done for women suffering from breast cancer.
而这正是在圣路易斯市的华盛顿大学工作的马修埃利斯及其同事们为罹患乳腺癌的妇女们所作的工作。
Their methods, if they prove to work for other cancers too, may revolutionise treatment.
如果事实证明他们的方法对其他癌症也有用的话,这可能会是癌症治疗的一次革命。
Dr Ellis and his team sequenced the whole genomes of both cancerous and normal tissuefrom 46 women with tumours of a type called oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer.
埃利斯博士及其团队对46名身患雌激素受体阳性乳腺癌的妇女的癌组织和正常组织进行了全基因组测序。
They also sequenced just the gene-containing regions of the genomeabout 1% of totalDNAfrom an additional 31 women, and parts of the sequences of 240 more.
他们也对另外31名病人的基因组中含有基因的那些区域进行了测序,并对其他240名病人的这些部分做了部分测序。
They then compared the healthy and tumorous genomes of each patient, in order to discoverwhich genes had mutated in the cancer.
此后,为找出癌细胞中哪些基因发生了突变,他们比较了每个病人的健康和癌变基因组。
In this, they were following the normal protocol of the cancer genome consortium.
他们在这一工作中是按癌症基因组协作组的标准程序操作的,
The novelty of their approach was that the women in question had each been involved inone of two clinical trials of a drug called letrozole.
但其方法的新颖之处是,他们还同时进行一种名为来曲唑的药物的临床试验。该试验有两种,每个病人都接受其中的一种。
These trials established letrozole as a standard treatment for people with this type of breastcancer,
这些试验证实来曲唑是这类乳腺癌的标准治疗方法,
but not all patients benefit equally from the drug.
但它对每个病人的疗效并不一样。
Dr Ellis hoped to find out why.
埃利斯博士希望找出其原因。
As they report in Nature, he and his team discovered 18 genes that were often mutated.
正如他们在《自然》杂志中所报告的那样,埃利斯和他的团队发现了18种经常发生突变的基因,
Some were the usual suspects of cancer genetics.
其中有些是癌症遗传学通常怀疑的对象。
These included p53, a gene that, when working properly, suppresses cancer by regulatingDNA repair, cell division and cellular suicide,
这中间包括p53,这种基因在正常工作时通过调节DNA对的修复、细胞分裂和细胞自杀来抑制癌症;
and MAP3K1 and MAP2K4, which both promote cell growth.
还有MAP3K1和MAP2K4,它们都能促进细胞生长。
Others, though, were a surprise.
但也有些令人吃惊的其他结果。
At the top of that list were five which had previously been linked to leukaemia, but were notthought to affect solid tumours.
高踞名单前列的5种基因是人们过去认为与白血病有关的,没想到它们也会影响实体瘤。
By combining their newly acquired genetic data with clinical data from the participants,
将他们新得到的基因数据与参与试验者的临床数据结合,
Dr Ellis and his colleagues showed that those whose tumours carried mutations in p53 wereless likely to have responded to letrozole than women whose tumours had normal p53.
埃利斯博士等人证明了,来曲唑对肿瘤中有p53基因突变的病人的疗效不如对肿瘤中p53基因正常的病人那样显著。
Conversely, those whose tumours had changes in either MAP3K1 or MAP2K4 had better thanaverage responses to the drug.
与此相反,这一药物对肿瘤中MAP3K1或MAP2K4有变化的病人的疗效高于平均水平。
This sort of information has obvious implications for treatment.
这种信息对治疗的含义是明显的。
And the cheapness of modern gene-sequencing methods, particularly those that are lookingfor specific mutations suspected in advance,
而且,现代基因测序法价格低廉,寻找预先已有怀疑的某些特别的基因突变尤为便宜;
means that a tumour s mutational complement can be worked out easily in an appropriatelyequipped pathology laboratory.
这意味着,在拥有合适装备的病理实验室里,人们可以很容易地找出肿瘤基因突变的补体。
In the case of oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer,
就雌激素受体阳性乳腺癌来说,
the genetic analysis has not yet gone so far as to be able to say with certainty which drugwill produce the best result for a given individual,
基因分析还无法肯定地告诉我们,哪种药物对某个病人疗效最佳;
but Dr Ellis s result lays a foundation on which such an edifice might be built for breastcancer and perhaps for other types of tumour, too.
但埃利斯博士的结果打下了一个基础,或许可以在此之上为乳腺癌甚至其他种类的癌症的治疗建立有效的预测方法。
词语解释
1.therapy n.治疗,疗法
And yet that is partly how cognitive therapyworks.
但这恰恰是认识疗法的一部分。
2.treatment n.治疗,疗法;处理
She will undergo immediate treatment.
她会立即接受治疗。
3.mutation n.变化;转变;突变
But curing the disease does not mean eliminating the mutation.
不过治疗该疾病并不意味着消灭这种突变。
4.tumour n.肿瘤
Thankfully, the tumour was cut out before it spread.
所幸的是肿瘤在扩散前就切除了。
5.trial n.试验;审讯,审判
He is in jail pending trial.
目前他还在狱中等待审判。
职场英语情景交际之对工作环境不满意且升职无望
职场英语口语百科:be over the hump
职场英语情景交际之公司接待接待约见拜访者
外企必备英语口语:用英语谈论某事的日期和时间安排
职场英语情景交际之同事之间抱怨第三服务商的服务质量
外企必备英语口语:用英语介绍自己和介绍别人
外企必备英语口语(4)
外企必备英语口语:寻求帮助
职场美语视频:英语询问对方有无计划或安排Are you doing anything tonight?
职场英语情景交际之顺利完成销售目标
职场英语情景交际之如何从9份面试中得到10份offer
职场英语情景交际之英国上班族下班兼职当乞丐
职场美语视频:用英语邀请同事或朋友来家中用餐
职场实用英语口语(3)
外企工作必备英语口语精讲(1)
职场英语情景交际之和朋友讨论对加薪幅度不满意的事
职场英语情景交际之垃圾邮件真烦人
外企必备英语口语(11)
职场美语视频:Accepting advice接受建议
职场英语情景交际之身体不适时用英语请假
职场实用英语口语(4)
外企工作必备英语口语精讲(3)
职场美语视频:Asking directions问路时被问者也不知道路怎么走时
职场英语情景交际之询问同事老板去向
职场英语口语百科:be on pins and needles
职场英语情景交际之部分程序被人修改了
职场英语情景交际之电话预定到伦敦的机票
外企必备英语口语(5)
外企必备英语口语(7)
职场美语视频:Considering different ways to react对他人不幸的回复
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |