癌症患者有救了!(雙語圖文)
The genetic code of two of the most deadly cancers has been cracked by British scientists in a world first that opens up a whole new era in the treatment for the disease.
英國科學家日前破譯了兩種最致命癌症的遺傳密碼，由此開闢了治療癌症的全新時代。
All the mutations that turn healthy cells cancerous in both lung and skin tumours have been identified in what researchers described as a "transforming moment" in the search for preventions, treatments and cures for both terminal illnesses.
科研人員日前已破解肺部和皮膚腫瘤中致健康細胞發生癌變的所有基因突變，並將該研究成果稱爲尋求預防、治療及治癒肺癌和皮膚癌兩種絕症的“轉變時刻”。
Eventually a simple blood test will lead to accurate "made to measure" treatments that can identify, attack and kill the causes of each patient's own individual cancer, they claim.
研究人員還表示，最終，一個簡單的血檢便可對患者進行“量身定製”的治療，這種治療能精確地識別、攻擊並殺滅每位患者各自的致癌誘因。
All cancers are caused by damage or mutations to the DNA of formerly healthy cells acquired during a person's lifetime.
所有的癌症都是由於人一生中健康細胞的DNA受到破壞或發生突變而引起的。
This damage causes them to grow into abnormal lumps or tumours and spread around the body disrupting its normal processes and eventually--if unchecked--causing death.
這些破壞使健康細胞長成異常的腫塊或腫瘤，擴散至全身，擾亂正常的生理過程，如不加以遏止，最終將導致死亡。
In lung cancer the damage is almost entirely caused by smoking and in skin cancer or malignant melanoma by ultra violent sunlight.
引發肺癌的這種破壞幾乎全因吸菸引起，而皮膚癌或惡性黑素瘤則是由陽光中的紫外線照射所致。
The Sanger Institute studies used powerful new DNA sequencing technologies to decode completely the genome of both tumour tissue and normal tissue from a lung cancer and a malignant melanoma patient.
桑格研究所開展的這項研究從一名肺癌患者和一名皮膚癌患者身上分別提取腫瘤細胞組織和正常細胞組織，運用新型高效的DNA測序技術對其基因組進行了全面破解。
They then compared and contrasted the two to discover the differences and see what damage has occurred to cause the disease.
隨後，研究人員對兩者進行了比較和對比，以期發現其中的差別，進而瞭解是何種破壞的出現引發了癌症。
The lung cancer genome, which kills 34,500 people a year, contained more than 23,000 mutations, the melanoma, which kills 2,000 people a year, more than 33,000.
每年致3.45萬人死亡的肺癌，其基因組包含2.3萬個突變；而每年致2000人死亡的皮膚癌，其基因組包含3.3萬個突變。
Most of these mutations are known as "passengers" and cause damage but not cancer. However a small number are called "drivers" and these lead to the disease.
這些突變基因中的大部分被認爲是“乘客”，它們雖會造成破壞，卻並不直接致癌。但也有少量的突變基因被稱爲“司機”，正是它們導致了癌症的發生。
By sequencing many more cancer patients over the next few years, the researchers hope to distil down the mix until they have a handful of targets to hit with treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
研究人員在未來幾年將對更多癌症患者進行基因組測序，以期對這兩類突變進行過濾篩選，直至找到少量目標，以便用化療、放療等方式予以殺滅。
It is eventually believed that a simple blood test will mean every patient will be given their own cancer chart so their treatment can be tailor made.
人們相信，最終，每個癌症患者通過一個簡單的血檢就可獲得其本人的癌變圖譜，因而其治療也會量身定製。
Already the lung cancer genome is yielding useful information. As the average victim has smoked 18,000 packets of cigarettes, the researchers have concluded that a mutation is caused roughly every 15 cigarettes.
對肺癌基因組的研究已獲得了某種有用的信息。由於肺癌患者平均吸菸1.8萬包，研究人員據以得出結論稱，大約每15根香菸就會引發一個基因突變。
The research, published in the journal Nature, was hailed as groundbreaking by fellow researchers.
這份發表在《自然》雜誌上的研究成果被其他同領域研究者讚譽爲具有突破性意義。
Professor Carlos Caldas, a cancer expert from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, said: "This is groundbreaking research."
英國癌症研究院劍橋研究所的癌症研究專家卡洛斯·卡爾達斯稱：“這是一項突破性的研究。”
"By repeating and refining this technique with other forms of cancer, and comparing the results to data from the Human Genome Project, the hope and excitement for the future is that we'll eventually have a detailed picture of how different cancers develop, and ultimately how better to treat and prevent them."
“通過反覆使用並不斷改良這一技術來研究其他類型的癌症，之後將研究結果與‘人類基因組計劃’的數據進行比較，令人興奮的是，未來我們有望最終獲得一份詳盡的基因圖譜，展示各種癌症的發生過程，並瞭解如何更好地治療及預防癌症。”
Dr Elizabeth Rapley, of The Institute of Cancer Research, added: "These are exciting studies that show us a great deal about how cancer is triggered and driven by mutations in DNA. "
癌症研究院的伊麗莎白·拉普利博士補充道：“這是一項激動人心的研究。它爲我們提供了大量信息，揭示了DNA的突變是如何引發及推動癌症產生的。”
"This is the first time that a complete cancer genome has been sequenced and similar insights into other cancer genomes are likely to follow. "
“這是人類首次完成一種癌症全基因組的排序，對其他癌症基因組的類似研究成果可能也將隨後出爐。”
"As more cancer genomes are revealed by this technique, we will gain a greater understanding of how cancer is caused and develops, improving our ability to prevent, treat and cure cancer."
“隨着該技術破解更多的癌症基因，我們將極大地增強對癌症成因及其演變的認識，繼而提高預防、治療及治癒癌症的能力。”
