Scientists are putting a modern spin on a cancer treatment that goes back to antiquity. It's heat therapy, which is getting a new look with the help of microscopic particles of gold.
科学家们正在利用一种古代技术来治疗癌症。在纳米技术的协助下，热疗发挥出新的作用。
Cancer treatments usually involve powerful drugs or radiation. But heating up the tumor — hyperthermia — can also be part of the therapy.
癌症治疗通常需要采用强力药物或者是放疗技术。但是，给肿瘤加热，或者称肿瘤热疗，也可以作为治疗的一部分。
"Hyperthermia is an old technology ... first recorded in papyrus by the Egyptians, I believe. It's the first known treatment of breast cancer," says Jeffrey Rosen of the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
"The idea is that as you raise temperature, you induce a heat shock in cells, and that this makes them more susceptible to the damage caused by chemotherapy and radiation."
“这种治疗是通过加热，让癌细胞对化疗和放疗带来的破坏更敏感。”
Rosen has just published new research on how some new materials can help harness the potential of hyperthermia for cancer treatment.
罗森医生最近发表了一份新的研究报告，介绍一些新物质如何能让热疗医治癌症变得更安全。
One problem in using heat against cancers is that it can damage surrounding, healthy tissue. Rosen says that microscopic particles of gold — nanoparticles — can be injected into the body to make sure the heat gets to the right place.
用热疗治疗癌症有一个问题，那就是，它会伤害到周围健康的细胞组织。罗森医生表示，可以把被称为“纳米颗粒”的微粒黄金，注射进身体中，以确保热源直接进入正确的部位。
"The gold nanoparticles have this ability to be activated by near-infrared lasers so that they can be heated quite rapidly," he says.
他说：“黄金纳米颗粒可以被近红外线激光激活，从而非常迅速地被加热。”
And Rosen adds that the nanoparticles travel to where they're needed, to the cancer, so the healthy tissue doesn't get heated up.
罗森医生说，纳米颗粒可以到达癌细胞所在位置，这样健康的细胞组织就不会受到影响。
"You'll have those gold nanoparticles actually accumulating in the leaky blood vessels of the tumor, and then the laser can be used locally just to heat that area."
“我们可以让黄金纳米颗粒聚集到肿瘤上有破洞的血管上，然后使用激光局部加热那个地方。”
In this study, the tumor was heated to 42 degrees for 20 minutes. The actual target was breast cancer stem cells, the cells from which cancers grow and metastasize, and which tend to resist drug and radiation treatments.
在研究中，肿瘤被加热到42度，持续20分钟。事实上，加热的目标是那些会导致癌症生长和转移、以及对药物和化疗有抵抗力的乳腺癌干细胞。
Rosen says tests using laboratory mice suggest the heat treatments may be an effective way of augmenting radiation or chemotherapy for patients with some kinds of tumors, including breast cancer. But he cautions that it should not be considered a "magic bullet" in the fight against cancer.
罗森医生表示，在实验室老鼠身上所做的试验表明，对那些乳腺癌和其他一些肿瘤患者来说，热疗可能是加强化疗和放疗疗效的有效方式。但是他告诫说，不应当把这种治疗方式看作是治疗癌症的“魔术子弹”。
"We think this is a proof of principle, that this type of approach will work, but it's a bit like the gene therapy field was maybe 15 years ago — we're going to have to still target to the right cells and the right place."
“我们认为，这就是证明了一个原则，表明这种方式能起作用，但是这就象15年前的基因疗法一样，我们必须针对正确的位置和正确的细胞。”
Baylor College of Medicine researcher Jeffrey Rosen's paper is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
罗森医生的研究结果刊登在最新一期的《科学─转化医学》期刊上。 |