VOA朗讀: Study Finds Treatment Cured Sickle Cell in Adults

Study Finds Treatment Cured Sickle Cell in Adults

16 December 2009


This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Last week, researchers in the United States reported curing nine adults with sickle cell disease. Ten patients in all were treated in a study with donated bone marrow. The healthy marrow causes new blood cells to form.

Sickle cell disease, also called sickle cell anemia, is a genetic condition that deforms red blood cells. They become sticky and harden into the shape of the letter C, like a sickle, a hand tool with a curved blade.

The deformed cells block blood vessels and cut off the flow of oxygen to tissue in the body. People with sickle cell disease can suffer severe pain, bacterial infections and the death of tissue.

In other studies, bone marrow transplants cured severe sickle cell disease in almost two hundred children. Doctors first used chemicals to destroy the children's own marrow, then replaced it with healthy marrow.

However, doctors have considered this treatment too risky for adults with the disease. Their major organs are already too damaged to have all their bone marrow destroyed.

So for the ten patients in the study, doctors used a low amount of radiation to destroy only some of their marrow. Then the patients received healthy marrow. There was enough space in the bone for the healthy marrow to start producing new red blood cells.

The researchers say all ten patients remain alive two and a half years after the treatment, and the disease has disappeared in nine of them.

Marrow is a soft, spongy tissue inside bones. Doctors can collect it with a needle. But people who donate marrow must first have tests to make sure they are a good match for the patient.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the study. John Tisdale at the National Institutes of Health was the lead investigator. He says other uses for the treatment are also likely to be found.

Black people in Africa are the huge majority of those with sickle cell disease. About two hundred thousand cases are found in African children every year. About eighty thousand people have it in the United States.

A study published in September in the Lancet said antibacterial vaccines could save the lives of children with sickle cell in Africa. The study pointed out that many children die before they are even identified as having the disease. They die from bacterial infections for which there are new vaccines. But these vaccines are costly and available mainly in wealthy countries.

這裏是VOA特別英語健康報道。

上周，美國研究人員報告9名患鐮刀性細胞貧血症的成人被治愈。在這項研究中，共有10名病人用捐贈的骨髓進行了治療。這些健康的骨髓促使健康的血細胞形成。

鐮狀細胞病也叫做鐮刀性細胞貧血病，是紅[血]細胞殘缺的一種基因遺傳類疾病。紅細胞粘稠，硬化成字母C的形狀，就像一把彎彎的鐮刀。這些變形的細胞阻塞血管，阻斷了氧氣向身體各組織的輸送。患有鐮刀形細胞貧血症的人會遭受劇烈的疼痛，細菌感染和組織壞死。

在其他研究中，骨髓移植共治愈了200名鐮刀形細胞貧血症兒童。醫生首先使用化學物質毀壞兒童自己的骨髓，然後用健康的骨髓替代。

然而，醫生認為這種治療方法對成人患者來說太過危險。他們的主要器官已經受到嚴重損害，已經不能把他們的自由骨髓損壞。

所以，對於研究中的9名病人，醫生使用了低量的放射性物質，隻損壞其中一部分骨髓，然後接受健康的骨髓。骨頭中有足夠的空間讓新的骨髓開始產生新的紅細胞。

研究人員稱，經過治療之後，所有10名病人仍然活著，而其中9人的疾病已經治愈。

骨髓是骨頭中一種柔軟的海麵組織，醫生可以用針來收集。但是捐贈骨髓者首先必須進行測試，確保能夠與病人相吻合。

新英格蘭醫學期刊發表了這篇研究。國立衛生研究所的John Tisdale是這項調查的負責人。他說，還可能發現這種治療方法的其他用途。

在患有鐮刀形細胞貧血症的人群中，非洲黑人占了一大部分。每年大約發現20萬例非洲兒童患有這種疾病，美國有8萬。

九月份柳葉刀期刊發表的一份研究稱，抗菌疫苗可以拯救非洲鐮刀形細胞病兒童的生命。研究指出，許多兒童在診斷出患有這種疾病之前已經死亡。他們死於細菌感染，而針對這種細菌已經有了新的疫苗。但是這些疫苗非常昂貴，主要在發達國家供應。

(中譯ZT網絡)