Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and other large pharmaceutical¹ companies on Sunday unveiled research showing that their drugs can improve the prospects² of patients suffering from the deadliest forms of cancer, generating excitement at the world’s largest meeting of oncologists.

上周日，强生(Johnson & Johnson)、艾伯维(AbbVie)等大型制药公司披露的研究结果显示，它们研制的药品能改善患某些最致命形式癌症的人的存活前景，这件事在全球最大的肿瘤学家会议上引起了轰动。

About 35,000 doctors and scientists gathered in Chicago at the weekend for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), where the results of more than 5,000 clinical trials were published.

上周末，约3.5万名医生和科学家齐聚芝加哥，出席美国临床肿瘤学会(American Society of Clinical Oncology)年度会议。这次会议上发表了逾5000个临床试验的结果。

The data from some studies fuelled hopes that drugmakers are on the cusp of a breakthrough in treating patients who have run out of options.

某些研究给出的数据给人们以这样的希望：在治疗那些已用尽现有疗法的患者方面，制药企业正处在取得突破的边缘。

A large clinical trial of Darzalex, a drug being co-developed by J&J, showed the medicine improved outcomes dramatically for patients suffering from multiple myeloma, an incurable³ bone marrow⁴ cancer that kills half its victims within five years.

Darzalex是强生参与研制的一款药品。对Darzalex展开的一项大型临床试验显示，此药大幅改善了多发性骨髓瘤患者的治疗效果。多发性骨髓瘤是一种不可治愈的骨髓癌症，患者患病五年内的死亡率为50%。

Combining the J&J drug with another two medicines commonly given to multiple myeloma patients reduced the risk of a patient’s cancer becoming worse by about 70 per cent, according to a trial of almost 500 participants.

一项参与者将近500人的临床试验显示，将强生的这款药与另两款多发性骨髓瘤患者的常用药结合使用，会将患者癌症恶化的风险降低约70%。

A fifth of patients on the Darzalex cocktail⁵ experienced a “complete response”, which means their cancer disappeared entirely⁶, while a further 60 per cent had substantial tumour⁷ shrinkage. The combination was about twice as effective as the other two medicines alone.

接受这种Darzalex鸡尾酒疗法的患者，有五分之一的人病情“完全缓解”——也就是说他们的癌完全消失了——还有60%的人肿瘤显著减小。这种组合的有效性约为只使用另两款药的两倍。

“These results are unprecedented⁸ in this cancer,” said Dr Antonio Palumbo, an oncologist at the University of Torino in Italy, who led the study. The Darzalex combination would soon become the most common medicine given to multiple myeloma sufferers, he predicted.

领导这项研究的是意大利都灵大学(University of Torino)肿瘤学家安东尼奥•帕伦博博士(Dr Antonio Palumbo)。他说：“对于这类癌症来说，这些结果是史无前例的。”他预计，Darzalex组合疗法很快就会成为多发性骨髓瘤患者最常用的治疗方案。

A smaller trial of an experimental drug recently acquired by AbbVie was also shown to improve the chances of people suffering from another of the deadliest cancers, small-cell lung cancer, which tends to affect smokers⁹.

而对艾伯维最近收购的一款试验药品展开的一项较小型的临床试验，也显示出提高了患有另一类最致命癌症的人的存活几率。这种癌症就是小细胞肺癌，患这种癌的往往是吸烟者。

This type of lung cancer spreads throughout the body quickly, rarely responds to treatment, and claims the lives of more than 250,000 people a year. Just 3 per cent of patients survive for at least five years following diagnosis¹⁰.

这种肺癌在全身扩散很快，治疗也罕有效果，每年会夺去逾25万人的生命。确诊后的五年存活率只有3%。

The drug, known as Rova-T, halted tumour growth in almost 90 per cent of patients with high levels of a specific protein, and shrank tumours¹¹ in 39 per cent of sufferers, according to the study of about 71 participants, all of whom had failed to respond to other treatments.

一项参与者约71人的研究显示，这款名为Rova-T的药物令几乎90%的、体内某种蛋白质水平较高的患者的肿瘤停止了生长，还令39%的患者肿瘤缩小。这71人此前尝试过其他疗法，但毫无效果。

However, these patients on average survived for about six months after starting therapy, just one month longer that doctors would typically expect.

不过，这些患者在开始接受这项治疗后平均存活时间约为六个月，只比医生们通常预期的存活时间长一个月。

Rova-T adopts a novel approach whereby a toxic¹² agent is delivered directly into the tumour cell so it can kill the cancer without destroying healthy tissues as well. The method allows patients to be given larger doses of toxins¹³ than they would otherwise be able to tolerate.

Rova-T采用了一种创新的方案：毒剂被直接送入肿瘤细胞，从而能在不破坏健康组织的情况下除掉癌变。这种方案使得患者能够接受超过他们原本耐受水平的毒素剂量。