VOA慢速英语:New Test Could Find Cancer Earlier(翻译)

Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world.
癌症是世界各地的首席杀手。

When it comes to cancer, the sooner you know you have it, the better your chances of surviving.
说到癌症，发现的越早，治愈的几率越大。

A new blood test could change the way doctors and researchers find cancer in patients.Researchers say the test could provide clues to the early forms of the disease.
一项新的血检能够改变医生以及研究人员发现癌症的方式。研究人员表示该试验能够为发现癌症初期症状提供线索。

Scientists at the University of Swansea in Wales came up with the idea.
英国威尔士大学斯旺西学院的科学家们提出了这个想法。

Gareth Jenkins is a professor at the university.He says he and his team did not look for cancer.They instead looked for a by-product of cancer.They looked for, what Jenkins calls, the collateral damage of cancer—the damage left by the disease.
加雷斯·詹金斯是该校的教授。他表示他和自己的团队关注的并不是癌症。相反，他们关注的是癌症的副产物。用詹金斯的话来说，他们研究的是癌症的间接伤害，即由癌症造成损害。

In this case, the by-product was mutated red blood cells.
这里的副产物是发生变异的红细胞。

“In this blood test we don’t measure the presence of cancer,we measure the presence of mutated red blood cellswhich are the collateral damage that occurs—a by-product of the cancer developing.”
“在这样的血检中，我们关注的不是癌症症状，而是关注病变的红细胞，这些红细胞是由癌症的间接伤害造成，是癌症病发过程中的副产物。”

The researchers used normal laboratory equipment to perform the tests.This equipment looks for changes in the structure of millions of red blood cells.Those mutated cells lack a surface protein that healthy cells normally have.
研究人员采用了常规实验设备进行此项试验。这些设备主要关注的是无数红细胞结构的变化。正常红细胞有一种表面蛋白质，病变红细胞则缺少这种蛋白质。

“The essence of the test is looking for very rare cells which have picked up a mutation.The numbers of mutated red blood cells in a healthy person are around 5 or so mutant cells per million;so, you have to look at millions of red blood cells to detect those rare events.These numbers increase in cancer patients—they go up to 40 or 50 mutants on average.”
“血检的关键在于寻找少数发生病变的细胞。正常人体中每百万细胞中约有5个病变的红细胞。因此必须要对数百万红细胞进行观察才可能出现这个小概率事件。但癌症患者体内发生突变的红细胞数量较多，平均会有40到50个病变细胞。”

The researchers tested blood from about 300 people, all of whom have cancer of the esophagus.Patients with esophageal cancer have high levels of mutated red blood cells.Jenkins says that at this point he is not sure if other cancers would produce similar results.
研究人员对300多人进行血检，这些人都患有食管癌。患有食管癌的患者病变红细胞数量较高。詹金斯表示不确定其他类型癌症患者是否也会出现类似的结果。

“We’ve only been looking at esophageal cancer patients.‘Do other types of cancer patients have high levels of these mutant red blood cells as well?’We don’t know the answer to that question at present.”
“我们只对患有食管癌的患者进行了观察。‘其他类型癌症患者体内病变红细胞数量是否也会出现升高的现象？’目前我们还不知道此问题的答案是什么。”

The hope is that the new test and other non-invasive methods could one day become part of commonly used medical methods.He says that using a battery, or series, of tests will be the best way to find out if a person has cancer.
希望此次最新试验以及其他无创性方式未来能够成为常用医疗方法的一部分。他表示利用一系列试验将会是诊断某人是否患有癌症的最佳方法。

“A battery of tests, based on different principles looking at blood, looking at other bodily fluids—breath, urine—will be the best way of getting a comprehensive view of whether an individual might or might not have cancer.”
基于观察血液或者其他体液（如呼出的水汽以及尿液等）的不同原则，进行一系列试验，将是全面了解某人是否患有癌症的最佳方法。

These new technologies could save millions of lives.
这项新科技可能会拯救无数生命。

I’m Anna Matteo.
安娜·马蒂奥为您报道。