VOA慢速英语2015 安吉丽娜·朱莉进行第二次手术预防癌症

Angelina Jolie Has Second Surgery to Prevent Cancer 安吉丽娜·朱莉进行第二次手术预防癌症

Hollywood actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie told the world this week that she had had another operation to reduce her chance of getting cancer.

On Tuesday, the 39-year-old actress published a piece in The New York Times. She wrote about her decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to protect herself from ovarian cancer. She did not have her uterus removed, as she has no family history of uterine cancer.

Two years ago, doctors performed a double mastectomy on the star. Jolie also wrote a piece for The New York Times about the decision to remove both her breasts.

Jolie took that action after discovering she carried a mutation¹ in the BRCA1 gene².  This put her at a very high risk of getting breast cancer. The same mutation also gave her a 50 percent risk of getting ovarian cancer. Jolie’s mother, aunt and grandmother all died of cancer.

The actress said she wrote about her decision so that women would know about what treatments are available to them. She noted³ that surgery may not be the best choice for every woman. She wrote: "The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally." 

Carol Brown of the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York agrees. There are many treatment possibilities to consider.  Dr. Brown says women with mutated genes⁴ who get preventative surgery have a 98 percent chance of staying cancer free.

The average woman has a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer sometime during her life. Women who have inherited a faulty BRCA gene are about five times more likely to get breast cancer.

Only a small percentage of women inherit the same mutated gene similar to Jolie’s.  These mutations are most commonly found in women of Eastern European Jewish descent⁵. However other groups, including Norwegians, Dutch and Icelandics, also have slightly higher rates of the mutations.

Words in This Story

mastectomy – n. surgical⁶ removal of all or part of the breast and sometimes associated lymph nodes and muscles

mutation – n. a change in the genes of a plant or animal that causes physical characteristics that are different from what is normal

option – n. the opportunity or ability to choose something or to choose between two or more things

inherit – v. biology: to get a characteristic, disease, etc., because of the genes that you get from your parents when you are born

menopause – n. the time in a woman's life when blood stops flowing from her body each month

The surgery showed no signs of cancer in any of the tissue removed.  But it has ended Jolie’s ability to have more children. She wrote that she has entered menopause.

Angelina Jolie wrote that she is at peace with her decisions. “I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer,'" she wrote in The Times. Ms. Jolie has six children with her husband, actor Brad Pitt.

1 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

2 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

5 descent   

n.下降，下倾，斜坡，坡道，血统，世系

参考例句：

• We watched anxiously during her descent from the tree.我们焦急地看着她从树上爬下来。
• Many Americans are of English descent.许多美国人的祖籍是英国。

6 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。