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After surgery, some cancer patients can safely avoid treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy, say two recent studies that explore shorter, gentler cancer care.
根据最近两项探索更短、更温和的癌症护理的研究，一些癌症患者在手术后可以安全地跳过放疗或化疗。
Researchers are looking for ways to predict which cancer patients can avoid unneeded treatment to cut down on costs and bad side effects.
研究人员正在寻找方法来预测哪些癌症患者可以避免不必要的治疗，以减少费用和不良副作用。
One new study used a blood test to study which colon cancer patients could skip, or not have, chemotherapy after surgery.
一项新的研究使用血液检查来研究哪些结肠癌患者在手术后可以跳过化疗。
Another study suggests some low-risk breast cancer patients might not need radiation after the surgical removal of a mass or lump, a surgery known as a lumpectomy.
另一项研究表明，一些低风险乳腺癌患者在肿瘤切除术后可能不需要放疗。
The research was discussed recently at the yearly meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
最近在美国临床肿瘤学会的年度会议上讨论了相关研究。
The colon cancer study, financed by the Australian and U.S. governments and nonprofit groups, was recently published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
有关结肠癌的研究由澳大利亚和美国政府以及非营利组织资助，研究成果最近发表在《新英格兰医学杂志》上。
The findings let doctors pay careful attention to "the patients we think would truly benefit from chemotherapy and avoid the side effects for patients for whom it's likely unnecessary," said Dr. Stacey Cohen of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
弗雷德·哈钦森癌症中心的斯泰西·科恩博士说，这些发现让医生更加关注“那些我们认为真正能从化疗中受益的患者，并避免对那些可能没有必要进行化疗的患者所带来的副作用。”
Cohen reviewed the colon cancer findings and was not involved in the research.
科恩审阅了有关结肠癌的研究结果，但没有参与相关研究。
Many colon cancer patients are given chemotherapy after surgery, even though they may be cured.
许多结肠癌患者在手术后接受化疗，即使他们可能已经痊愈。
The drugs can come with bad side effects such as nausea, anemia and memory problems.
这些药物可能会带来一些不良副作用，如恶心、贫血和记忆问题。
But deciding which patients might not need further treatment has been difficult.
但决定哪些患者可能不需要进一步治疗一直很困难。
So, the scientists studied whether a blood test could help doctors make the decision.
因此，科学家研究了血液检查是否可以帮助医生做出决定。
The study involved 455 patients who had surgery because cancer had spread into the colon wall.
这项研究涉及455名因癌症已扩散到结肠壁而接受手术的患者。
After surgery, one group received a blood test specially made for the tumor's genetic information to find any remaining bits of cancer DNA.
手术后，其中一组人接受了根据他们的肿瘤基因信息定制的血液检查，以寻找任何残留的癌症DNA片段。
Their care was guided by the blood test.
他们的护理以血液检查为指导。
If the test showed no signs of remaining cancer, the patients did not get chemotherapy.
如果没有发现残留癌症的迹象，患者就不进行化疗。
Meanwhile, doctors made chemotherapy decisions for the rest of the patients in the usual way, guided by careful study of the tumor and nearby tissue.
与此同时，医生在对肿瘤和附近组织的仔细研究的指导下，对剩下的患者则以常规方法决定其是否进行化疗。
Fewer patients in the blood test group got chemotherapy--15 percent in comparison to 28 percent.
血液检查组进行化疗的患者较少——比例为15%对28%。
But about 93 percent of both groups were still free of cancer after two years.
但在两组患者中，约有93%的人在两年后未患癌症。
In other words, the blood test group did equally well with less chemotherapy.
换句话说，血液检查组在接受化疗较少的情况下表现同样良好。
Dr. Jeanne Tie of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne, Australia, led the research.
澳大利亚墨尔本彼得·麦卡勒姆癌症中心的珍妮·蒂博士领导了这项研究。
Tie described the findings in terms of cancer relapse--the return of a cancer after a period of improvement.
蒂从癌症复发（癌症在一段时间的改善后复发）的角度描述了这些发现。
"In patients where cancer DNA is not detected after surgery, the chance of cancer relapse is very low, suggesting that chemotherapy is very unlikely to benefit these patients," Tie said.
蒂说：“在手术后未检测到癌症DNA的患者中，癌症复发的几率非常低，这表明化疗不太可能对这些患者有益。”
ASCO president Dr. Everett Vokes said that not having chemo makes "a big difference in a person's quality of life if that can be done without having to put them" at risk of the disease coming back.
美国临床肿瘤学会的主席弗里特·沃克斯博士说，在不让他们面临癌症复发的风险的前提下，不进行化疗会对一个人的生活质量产生很大的影响。
The other study followed 500 older women with a common form of early-stage breast cancer and low levels of a protein known as Ki67, a marker for fast-growing cancer.
另一项研究跟踪了500名老年女性，她们患有一种常见的早期乳腺癌且体内一种名为Ki67的蛋白质水平较低，Ki67是癌症快速发展的标志。
After surgery, the women took hormone-blocking pills, a common treatment for this type of cancer.
手术后，这些女性服用激素阻断剂，这是治疗这类癌症的常见方法。
But the women did not get radiation treatment.
但这些女性没有接受放疗。
After five years, 10 of the women saw cancer return in the same breast, and there was one breast cancer death.
五年后，其中10名女性乳腺癌复发，还有一名乳腺癌患者死亡。
The study had no comparison group, but researchers said the results compare well to historical data for similar patients who had radiation.
尽管这项研究没有设对照组，但研究人员表示，他们的研究结果相比之下不亚于接受放疗的类似患者的历史数据。
Dr. Timothy Whelan of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, led the study.
安大略省汉密尔顿市麦克马斯特大学的蒂莫西·惠兰博士领导了这项研究。
"We estimate the benefits of radiation would be very small in this population compared to the side effects," Whelan said.
惠兰说：“我们估计，与产生的副作用相比，接受放疗给这些人带来的益处非常少。”
Radiation can cause skin problems, tiredness and, less commonly, long-term heart problems and second cancers.
放疗会导致皮肤问题、疲劳以及不太常见的长期的心脏问题和第二种癌症。
Dr. Deborah Axelrod of NYU Langone Health was not involved in the research.
纽约大学朗格尼健康中心的黛博拉·阿克塞尔罗德博士没有参与相关研究。
Axelrod described the study as a "feel-good" message for patients with low-risk tumors.
阿克塞尔罗德称这项研究对低风险肿瘤患者来说是一个“感觉良好”的信息。
Axelrod added that the data will help doctors understand which of their patients they "can comfortably, with confidence" not give radiation to.
阿克塞尔罗德还说，这些数据将帮助医生了解他们的哪些患者“可以放心地”不进行放疗。
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
