新藥物有望替代生物治療治癒乳腺癌
Many more women could be helped by a new type of breast cancer drug, say experts.
有關專家日前表示，隨着一種治療乳腺癌的新藥誕生，更多的女性將會得到幫助。Biological therapies are currently only available as part of clinical trials, but hold great promise. Experts estimate as many as one in five patients might benefit.
雖然生物療法目前僅對部分臨牀試驗有效，但專家對此仍然持有很大的希望。專家預計，多達五分之一的病患能從中獲益。Around 10,000 women a year in the UK might benefit from a new type of breast cancer treatment, say scientists.
科學家表示，每年會有約10000名英國女性患者將從一種新的乳腺癌治療手段中獲益。
Biological therapies can help fight breast cancers caused by rare, inherited genetic errors like the BRCA one actress Angelina Jolie carries.
生物治療可以幫助抵抗罕見的遺傳錯誤導致的乳腺癌，例如女演員安吉麗娜·朱莉所攜帶的乳腺癌易感基因。Now a new study by experts at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute suggests these targeted drugs may also work in many other women who do not have these risky genes.
現在，由威康信託基金會桑格研究所的專家提出的一項新研究表明，這些靶向藥物也可能在許多其他沒有這些危險基因的女性中發揮作用。
The drugs could be effective in one in five breast cancers, say the researchers. That's 20% of patients - far more than the 1 to 5% who develop the cancer alongside having faulty BRCA genes.
研究人員表示，這些藥物可以在五分之一的乳腺癌中有效。這是病患數量的20%--遠遠超過1%到5%由於攜帶乳腺癌易感基因而發展成爲乳腺癌的患者人數。One biological therapy or PARP inhibitor, called olaparib, is already used on the NHS to treat advanced ovarian cancer. It is not yet approved as a breast cancer drug, although some UK women are taking it in clinical trials.
一種生物療法，或者叫做olaparib的PARP抑制劑，已經被英國國民健康保險制度用於治療晚期卵巢癌。儘管一些英國婦女正在接受臨牀試驗，但它尚未被批准爲乳腺癌藥物。For the latest work, published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers looked at the genetic make-up of breast cancer in 560 different patients.
對於發表在《自然醫學》雜誌上的最新研究，研究人員觀察了560例不同患者的乳腺癌的基因構成。They found a significant proportion of them had genetic errors or "mutational signatures" that were very similar to faulty BRCA.
他們發現相當一部分患者有着和乳腺癌易感基因相似的遺傳錯誤或者基因突變。Given the close similarity, these cancers might be treatable with biological therapies too, they reasoned. They recommended clinical trials to confirm this.
他們認爲，由於有着這樣的相似性，這些癌症同樣可以採用生物療法。他們建議用臨牀試驗來證明這一點。
