VOA标准英语2012--Researchers Say Malaria Drug Could Also Treat Cancer-英语课

时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(三月)

英语课

Researchers Say Malaria 1 Drug Could Also Treat Cancer

Scientists know that human cancer cells grow by getting energy from adjacent tumors, where cells have begun to self-destruct.

The spread of cancer is accelerated by the death of these cells.
“This process called autophagy, which literally 3 means to self-eat, is present in all cells," said Dr. Ravi Amaravadi. "But what we are finding in our research is that cancer cells have a very high level of autophagy even before any treatment, and so they are poised 4 to take on the damage from existing cancer therapies and simply break down the damaged parts to fuel further growth.”
Dr. Ravi Amaravadi spoke 5 to us via Skype. He is a cancer specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His group treated patients by combining conventional cancer medications with the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine. The compound is known to inhibit 6 autophagy and researchers hoped it could stop cancer cells from growing.
In clinical trials, scientists found that hydroxychloroquine paired poorly with some cancer drugs. But it worked well with others, such as Temsirolimus, in helping 7 to halt tumor 2 growth - a so-called "stable disease" rate - in patients with melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer.
“And when Temsirolimus [a cancer drug] was tested in melanoma, it had zero percent stable disease rate," said Amaravadi. "And when we combined with hydroxychloroquine malaria drug, the stable disease rate went up to 76 percent so that’s a very big difference.”
Researchers used a high dose of hydroxychloroquine to block autophagy, much higher than what's normally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis 8 or malaria. The dosage has not yet proved harmful.
Dr. Davide Ruggero at the University of California, San Francisco, is also studying the growth of cancer cells. He says the results of the research with hydroxychloriquine are promising 9.
“This is a great discovery because we know that the compounds are not toxic 10 - have already been used," said Ruggero.
But Dr. Amaravadi warns that oncologists should not use the anti-malaria drug outside of clinical settings. He says hydroxychloroquine has severe side effects when combined with some cancer drugs. So the knowledge of which compounds work well together is critical.

1 malaria

n.疟疾

He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

2 tumor

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。

3 literally

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 poised

a.摆好姿势不动的

The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

5 spoke

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说