TED演讲:在体内寻找癌细胞的小颗粒(1)

 In the space that used to house one transistor 1, we can now fit one billion. 在以前，可以放置一个晶体管的空间，现在可以放10亿个。

That made it so that a computer the size of an entire room now fits in your pocket. 这导致曾经占据了一整个房间的电脑，现在可以放在你的口袋里。
You might say the future is small. 也许你会说，未来东西都会越来越小。
As an engineer, I'm inspired by this miniaturization revolution in computers. 作为一个工程师，我受到了电脑微型化的启发。
As a physician, I wonder whether we could use it to reduce the number of lives lost 作为一名医生，我想知道我们可否用这个技术挽救更多的生命，
due to one of the fastest-growing diseases on Earth: cancer. 他们都死于地球上蔓延最快的疾病之一，癌症。
Now when I say that, 如今当我这样说的时候，
what most people hear me say is that we're working on curing cancer. 许多人认为我说的是我们在研究治愈癌症。
And we are. 我们的确是。
But it turns out that there's an incredible opportunity to save lives 但是结果是，通过及早发现和预防癌症
through the early detection and prevention of cancer. 就会有极大的机会拯救生命。
Worldwide, over two-thirds of deaths due to cancer are fully 2 preventable 在全球，用我们今天已有的技术，超过三分之二因癌症导致的死亡
using methods that we already have in hand today. 都是完全可以避免的。
Things like vaccination 3, timely screening and of course, stopping smoking. 包括疫苗接种，定期筛查，当然还有停止抽烟。
But even with the best tools and technologies that we have today, 但是就算使用如今我们拥有的最先进的工具和手段，
some tumors can't be detected until 10 years after they've started growing, 一些肿瘤仍然无法被探测到，直到它们已经生长了十年才被发现，
when they are 50 million cancer cells strong. 这时已经积累了5000万的癌细胞了。
What if we had better technologies to detect some of these more deadly cancers sooner, 要是我们有更好的技术，在癌细胞刚刚产生时，在还可以被铲除时就能更快
when they could be removed, when they were just getting started? 监测到一些更为致命的癌症，会怎么样呢？
Let me tell you about how miniaturization might get us there. 让我来告诉你们微型技术，如何可能让我们如愿。
This is a microscope in a typical lab 这是一个普通实验室中的显微镜，
that a pathologist would use for looking at a tissue specimen 4, like a biopsy or a pap smear 5. 病理学家用它观察组织标本，就像活体切片或巴氏涂片。
This $7,000 microscope 这个7000美元的显微镜
would be used by somebody with years of specialized 6 training to spot cancer cells. 可以被受过几年专业训练的人用来检测癌细胞。
This is an image from a colleague of mine at Rice University, Rebecca Richards-Kortum. 这张图片来自于我莱斯大学的同事，丽贝卡·理查兹科图姆。
What she and her team have done is miniaturize that whole microscope into this $10 part, 她和她的团队实现了微缩这整个显微镜到这个价值10美金的部件中，
and it fits on the end of an optical fiber 7. 可以把它安装在光纤的一端。
Now what that means is instead of taking a sample from a patient and sending it to the microscope, 这意味着无需在患者身上取得一个样本，并送到显微镜下检查，
you can bring the microscope to the patient. 你可以直接就把显微镜带入病人体内。
And then, instead of requiring a specialist to look at the images, 并且，不用要求一个专业领域的人来观察这个图像，
you can train the computer to score normal versus 8 cancerous cells. 你直接可以训练电脑去比对正常和癌变的细胞。
Now this is important, because what they found working in rural communities, 这一点很重要，因为他们发现在农村地区工作，
is that even when they have a mobile screening van 就算他们有移动的检查车，
that can go out into the community and perform exams and collect samples 可以走进农村进行检查并且收集样本，
and send them to the central hospital for analysis, 传输样本到中心医院进行分析，
that days later, women get a call with an abnormal test result and they're asked to come in. 几天之后，女性们接到一个异常测试结果的电话，并被要求来医院。
Fully half of them don't turn up because they can't afford the trip. 有一半的人不会出现，因为她们无法支付路费。
With the integrated microscope and computer analysis, 有了集成显微镜和计算机分析技术，
Rebecca and her colleagues have been able to create a van 丽贝卡和她的同事研发了同时具有
that has both a diagnostic setup and a treatment setup. 诊断装置和治疗装置的医疗车。
And what that means is that they can do a diagnosis 9 and perform therapy on the spot, 这意味着他们可以集诊断和实施治疗于一车，
so no one is lost to follow up. 每个病人都不会错过跟踪治疗。
That's just one example of how miniaturization can save lives. 这只是一个关于微型化如何拯救生命的例子。