多種抗癌新藥效果明顯

Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and other large pharmaceutical companies on Sunday unveiled research showing that their drugs can improve the prospects of patients suffering from the deadliest forms of cancer, generating excitement at the world’s largest meeting of oncologists.

上週日，強生(Johnson & Johnson)、艾伯維(AbbVie)等大型製藥公司披露的研究結果顯示，它們研製的藥品能改善患某些最致命形式癌症的人的存活前景，這件事在全球最大的腫瘤學家會議上引起了轟動。

About 35,000 doctors and scientists gathered in Chicago at the weekend for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), where the results of more than 5,000 clinical trials were published.

上週末，約3.5萬名醫生和科學家齊聚芝加哥，出席美國臨牀腫瘤學會(American Society of Clinical Oncology)年度會議。這次會議上發表了逾5000個臨牀試驗的結果。

The data from some studies fuelled hopes that drugmakers are on the cusp of a breakthrough in treating patients who have run out of options.

某些研究給出的數據給人們以這樣的希望：在治療那些已用盡現有療法的患者方面，製藥企業正處在取得突破的邊緣。

A large clinical trial of Darzalex, a drug being co-developed by J&J, showed the medicine improved outcomes dramatically for patients suffering from multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer that kills half its victims within five years.

Darzalex是強生參與研製的一款藥品。對Darzalex展開的一項大型臨牀試驗顯示，此藥大幅改善了多發性骨髓瘤患者的治療效果。多發性骨髓瘤是一種不可治癒的骨髓癌症，患者患病五年內的死亡率爲50%。

Combining the J&J drug with another two medicines commonly given to multiple myeloma patients reduced the risk of a patient’s cancer becoming worse by about 70 per cent, according to a trial of almost 500 participants.

一項參與者將近500人的臨牀試驗顯示，將強生的這款藥與另兩款多發性骨髓瘤患者的常用藥結合使用，會將患者癌症惡化的風險降低約70%。

A fifth of patients on the Darzalex cocktail experienced a “complete response”, which means their cancer disappeared entirely, while a further 60 per cent had substantial tumour shrinkage. The combination was about twice as effective as the other two medicines alone.

接受這種Darzalex雞尾酒療法的患者，有五分之一的人病情“完全緩解”——也就是說他們的癌完全消失了——還有60%的人腫瘤顯著減小。這種組合的有效性約爲只使用另兩款藥的兩倍。

“These results are unprecedented in this cancer,” said Dr Antonio Palumbo, an oncologist at the University of Torino in Italy, who led the study. The Darzalex combination would soon become the most common medicine given to multiple myeloma sufferers, he predicted.

領導這項研究的是意大利都靈大學(University of Torino)腫瘤學家安東尼奧•帕倫博博士(Dr Antonio Palumbo)。他說：“對於這類癌症來說，這些結果是史無前例的。”他預計，Darzalex組合療法很快就會成爲多發性骨髓瘤患者最常用的治療方案。

A smaller trial of an experimental drug recently acquired by AbbVie was also shown to improve the chances of people suffering from another of the deadliest cancers, small-cell lung cancer, which tends to affect smokers.

而對艾伯維最近收購的一款試驗藥品展開的一項較小型的臨牀試驗，也顯示出提高了患有另一類最致命癌症的人的存活機率。這種癌症就是小細胞肺癌，患這種癌的往往是吸菸者。

This type of lung cancer spreads throughout the body quickly, rarely responds to treatment, and claims the lives of more than 250,000 people a year. Just 3 per cent of patients survive for at least five years following diagnosis.

這種肺癌在全身擴散很快，治療也罕有效果，每年會奪去逾25萬人的生命。確診後的五年存活率只有3%。

The drug, known as Rova-T, halted tumour growth in almost 90 per cent of patients with high levels of a specific protein, and shrank tumours in 39 per cent of sufferers, according to the study of about 71 participants, all of whom had failed to respond to other treatments.

一項參與者約71人的研究顯示，這款名爲Rova-T的藥物令幾乎90%的、體內某種蛋白質水平較高的患者的腫瘤停止了生長，還令39%的患者腫瘤縮小。這71人此前嘗試過其他療法，但毫無效果。

However, these patients on average survived for about six months after starting therapy, just one month longer that doctors would typically expect.

不過，這些患者在開始接受這項治療後平均存活時間約爲六個月，只比醫生們通常預期的存活時間長一個月。

Rova-T adopts a novel approach whereby a toxic agent is delivered directly into the tumour cell so it can kill the cancer without destroying healthy tissues as well. The method allows patients to be given larger doses of toxins than they would otherwise be able to tolerate.

Rova-T採用了一種創新的方案：毒劑被直接送入腫瘤細胞，從而能在不破壞健康組織的情況下除掉癌變。這種方案使得患者能夠接受超過他們原本耐受水平的毒素劑量。