how many of you know at least one person on the screen?

在座的各位至少認識

Wow, it's almost a full house.

一位螢幕上的人請舉手。

It's true, they are very famous in their fields.

哇, 基本上每個人都舉手了。

And do you know what all of them have in common?

他們在各自的領域都十分有名。

They all died of pancreatic cancer.

你們知道他們有什麼共同點嗎?

However, although it's very, very sad this news,

他們都死於胰腺癌。

it's also thanks to their personal stories

雖然這是很糟的一件事，

that we have raised awareness of how lethal this disease can be.

但是正因為他們的故事

It's become the third cause of cancer deaths,

才使我們注意到胰腺癌有多致命。

and only eight percent of the patients will survive beyond five years.

在由癌症導致的死亡中，胰腺癌死亡率位居第三，

That's a very tiny number,

患有胰腺癌的病人只有8％可以活到五年以上。

especially if you compare it with breast cancer,

這個數字幾乎微不足道。

where the survival rate is almost 90 percent.

特別是跟乳腺癌比起來。

So it doesn't really come as a surprise

乳腺癌的存活率幾乎達到百分之九十。

that being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

所以，

means facing an almost certain death sentence.

被診斷出胰腺癌即幾乎意味著死亡

What's shocking, though, is that in the last 40 years,

並不十分令人吃驚。

this number hasn't changed a bit,

讓人驚訝的是，

while much more progress has been made

過去40年裡，

with other types of tumors.

腫瘤治療的各個領域都有了突飛猛進的發展，

So how can we make pancreatic cancer treatment more effective?

然而有關胰腺癌的數據一直沒有產生多大改變。

As a biomedical entrepreneur,

我們如何能使對胰線癌的治療更有效?

I like to work on problems that seem impossible,

作為生物醫學的企業家，

understanding their limitations

我喜歡挑戰看起來不可能的問題，

and trying to find new, innovative solutions

了解它們的限制，

that can change their outcome.

並試著找出創新的解決方法，

The first piece of bad news with pancreatic cancer

从而改變现有的結果。

is that your pancreas is in the middle of your belly, literally.

乳腺癌的存活率幾乎達到百分之九十。

It's depicted in orange on the screen.

胰臟差不多位於你肚子的正中間。

But you can barely see it

它是在螢幕上橘色的部份。

until I remove all the other organs in front.

但幾乎很難被看見，

It's also surrounded by many other vital organs,

除非把其他在前面的內臟都拿開。

like the liver, the stomach, the bile duct.

它也被其他許多重要的內臟包圍，

And the ability of the tumor to grow into those organs

例如肝，胃，膽管。

is the reason why pancreatic cancer

讓腫瘤有機會長到那些器管裏，

is one of the most painful tumor types.

這就是為什麼胰腺癌

The hard-to-reach location also prevents the doctor

是最痛苦的腫瘤之一。

from surgically removing it,

以乳腺癌為例，腫瘤一般採取收摘除的方法。

as is routinely done for breast cancer, for example.

然而胰腺難以觸及的位置

So all of these reasons leave chemotherapy as the only option

使得手術摘除不再是一個合理的選項。

for the pancreatic cancer patient.

這些原因導致化療成了

This brings us to the second piece of bad news.

胰腺癌患者唯一的選擇。

Pancreatic cancer tumors have very few blood vessels.

這帶給我們第二個壞消息，

Why should we care about the blood vessel of a tumor?

胰腺腫瘤有很少的血管。

Let's think for a second how chemotherapy works.

為什麼我們要注意腫瘤血管的問題?

The drug is injected in the vein

讓我們想一下化療是怎麼作用的。

and it navigates throughout the body until it reaches the tumor site.

化療的藥物被注射到靜脈裏，

It's like driving on a highway, trying to reach a destination.

它通過整個身體直到到逹腫瘤處。

But what if your destination doesn't have an exit on the highway?

像在高速公路開車，試著到逹目的地。

You will never get there.

但是你的目的地並没有出口怎麼辦?

And that's exactly the same problem

你就永遠到不了目的地。

for chemotherapy and pancreatic cancer.

這就是用化療治療

The drugs navigate throughout all of your body.

胰腺癌的問題的所在。

They will reach healthy organs,

化療的藥物通過整個身體，

resulting in high toxic effect for the patients overall,

會接觸到健康的內臟，

but very little will go to the tumor.

會讓毒性作用在病人的全身上下，

Therefore, the efficacy is very limited.

但只有非常少數會到逹腫瘤裏面。

To me, it seems very counterintuitive to have a whole-body treatment

因此療效非常地有限。

to target a specific organ.

對我來說，只需針對特定的器官，

However, in the last 40 years,

卻採用讓全身接受治療是有悖常理。

a lot of money, research and effort have gone towards

然而， 在過去40年，

finding new, powerful drugs to treat pancreatic cancer,

大量的時間、研究和努力都被投入到了

but nothing has been done in changing the way

尋找新的、能更有效地治療胰腺癌的藥物。

we deliver them to the patient.

但卻沒有在改​​變將藥物送達患處的方式上

So after two pieces of bad news,

做出更多的嘗試。

I'm going to give you good news, hopefully.

接連兩個壞消息之後，

With a collaborator at MIT

希望我能在給各位一些好消息。

and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston,

經過同一名来自麻省理工大学的研究人员

we have revolutionized the way we treat cancer

與波士頓的麻州綜合醫院的共同研究，

by making localized drug delivery a reality.

我們有了革命性的治療癌症的方法，

We are basically parachuting you on top of your destination,

讓藥只在局部上作用的方法成真。

avoiding your having to drive all around the highway.

我們讓你空降在目的地的正上方，

We have embedded the drug into devices that look like this one.

從而避免你在高速上四處亂轉。

They are flexible enough that they can be folded

我們把藥嵌入在你看到的這個裝置。

to fit into the catheter,

它很有彈性，

so the doctor can implant it directly on top of the tumor

可以折起來放入導管之中，

with minimally invasive surgery.

因此醫生可以用微創手術，

But they are solid enough that once they are positioned

直接放入腫瘤上面。

on top of the tumor,

它一旦放入又足夠穩固

they will act as a cage.

在腫瘤的上面，

They will actually physically prevent the tumor

作用像一個籠子一樣。

from entering other organs,

它可以實際上防止腫瘤

controlling the metastasis.

進入到其他器官裏。

The devices are also biodegradable.

進而控制腫瘤移轉。

That means that once in the body,

這個裝置也可以被生物分解。

they start dissolving,

這意味從裝置被放入身體，

delivering the drug only locally, slowly and more effectively

它們就會開始溶解，

than what is done with the current whole-body treatment.

相比目前針對整個身體的療法，

In pre-clinical study, we have demonstrated

這樣可以使藥物慢而有效的被運送到局部。

that this localized approach

臨床研究中，

is able to improve by 12 times the response to treatment.

我們證明了這種定點治療的方法

So we took a drug that is already known

可以使療效提升十二倍。

and by just delivering it locally where it's needed the most,

我們拿已經知道的藥，

we allow a response that is 12 times more powerful,

把它放在最需要的局部部位，

reducing the systemic toxic effect.

讓它有12倍強的作用能力，

We are working relentlessly to bring this technology to the next level.

同時減輕了對身體系統的有毒影響。

We are finalizing the pre-clinical testing

我們不懈努力為了使科技更上一層樓。

and the animal model required prior to asking the FDA for approval

我們正在做最終確定的臨床測試，

for clinical trials.

動物實驗還有待美國藥物管理局

Currently, the majority of patients will die from pancreatic cancer.

對臨床試驗的認可。

We are hoping that one day,

目前，大部份的胰腺癌病患會面臨死亡。

we can reduce their pain, extend their life

我們希望有一天，

and potentially make pancreatic cancer

能減少他們的痛苦，延長他們的壽命，

a curable disease.

並可能使胰腺癌成為

By rethinking the way we deliver the drug,

一個可治之症。

we don't only make it more powerful and less toxic,

經由再次思考用藥方式，

we are also opening the door to finding new innovative solutions

我們不僅使藥更有效也更少毒害，

for almost all other impossible problems

在解決治愈胰腺癌患

in pancreatic cancer patients and beyond.

甚至更多領域不可能完成的问题，

Thank you very much.

找到了創新的解决方式。

(Applause)

非常感謝大家。