VOA常速英语2014--Study Questions Value of Mammograms 乳房X光检查的有效性遭质疑

Study Questions Value of Mammograms 乳房X光检查的有效性遭质疑

Do mammograms save lives? That's the question being asked after a major new study -- one of the biggest ever -- released its results. Since then, doctors and others have weighed in.

乳房X光检查真的能拯救生命吗？一些医学研究者在问这个问题。在此之前，美国进行了有史以来最大的重要研究。不少医生和科研人员正在思考这个问题。

Mammograms are often considered the most powerful weapon in the war against breast cancer, but results from one of the largest studies ever done question their value. The study involved 90,000 women and spanned a quarter of a century.

乳房X光检查一直被认为是同乳腺癌做斗争的最有力的武器。最新的研究持续了25年，有九万名妇女参加。这项历来最大规模的研究却向乳房X光检查的有效性提出了疑问。

The women were divided into two groups. The first got regular mammograms, while the second group received physical breast exams only. After 25 years, the researchers found an equal number of women died from breast cancer in both groups.

参加研究的妇女被分成两组。第一组进行常规的乳房X光检查，第二组人只做手工乳房检查。25年后，研究人员发现，两组人中有同样数量的人死于乳腺癌。

Breast surgeons like Negar Golesorkhi said mammograms are imperfect tools in finding tumors, particularly for women with dense 1 breasts.

格雷索克希等乳房外科医生说，乳房X光检查并不是发现癌肿的完善工具。特别是对那些乳房组织密集的妇女来说，更是如此。

"When we look for cancer on a mammogram in dense breast tissue, we’re looking for a polar bear in a snow storm so it would be very difficult to find," said Golesorki.

乳房外科医生格雷索克希说：“在密集组织乳房中寻找癌肿，就像在暴风雪中寻找白熊。很难找到。”

The study also found the screening led to unnecessary surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment because tumors found were not always life-threatening.

研究还发现，乳房X光检查会导致不必要的手术，化疗或放疗。因为这种检查发现的肿瘤并不一定会威胁生命。

Author Cornelia Baines said the study's message is loud and clear.

新研究的撰稿人贝恩斯说，研究发出的信息是明确无误的。

"It isn't screening that's helping 2 women," she said. "It's better therapy and probably increased awareness 3."

贝恩斯说：“帮助妇女的并不是乳房X光检查，而是更好的治疗和提高人们的防癌意识。”

So what to do? A routine mammogram caught an aggressive form of breast cancer for 54-year-old Beth Shulman.

那么应该做什么呢？常规乳房X光检查在54岁的舒尔曼身上发现了恶性乳腺癌。

"I'm 100 percent sure that it did save me," said Shulman.

乳腺癌患者舒尔曼说：“我绝对肯定，是检查救了我的命。”

Other women, like Zuli Palacio, had routine mammograms that failed to catch three, fairly advanced cancerous tumors.

可是帕拉西奥等妇女做了常规乳房X光检查，却没能发现三个晚期癌肿。

"Even a month before it was detected, I went for a mammogram and they told me, 'You're fine. Go home,'” recalled Palacio.

她说：“甚至在发现癌肿前一个月，我做乳房X光检查的时候，他们还说，你没事，回家去吧。”

A breast cancer specialist found the tumors that mammograms missed. After chemotherapy and surgery, Palacio is cancer-free.

一位癌症专家发现了X光检查没发现的癌肿，经过化疗和手术，帕拉西奥治好了癌症。

There are a lot of questions about the Canadian study. It's the only major study that doesn't show that mammograms save lives, according to Richard Wender, from the American Cancer Society.

对加拿大的最新研究，仍然有很多问题。美国癌症学会的温德博士说，这是唯一一个显示乳房X光检查不能拯救生命的主要研究。

"When you put all of the trials together, there’s a unanimity 4 of opinion that the best way to avoid a premature 5 death is to have a mammogram regularly, for all women 40 and older," Wender told VOA.

温德通过Skype对美国之音说：“对40岁和40岁以上的妇女来说，避免过早死亡的最佳途径是按时做乳房X光检查，综合所有各种试验的结果，这是一致的观点。”

The question remains 6: how can women with breast cancer find it early enough to save their lives?

现在问题仍然是，妇女怎样及早发现乳腺癌，挽救生命。

The American Cancer Society recommends yearly mammogram screenings starting at age 40. The group may recommend women with dense breasts also have an MRI when the society revises its guidelines later this year.

美国癌症学会建议，妇女从40岁开始，每年做一次乳房X光检查。该学会今年修订它的指导方针的时候，可能建议那些乳房组织密集的妇女也要做手工乳房检查。