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An international team of scientists has made a breakthrough in identifying how air pollution causes lung cancer in people who have never smoked, a development that could help medical experts prevent and treat tumours.
一个国际科学家团队在确定空气污染如何导致从不吸烟的人患上肺癌方面取得了突破，这一进展可能有助于医学专家预防和治疗肿瘤。
Researchers found the fine particles in polluted air cause inflammation in the lungs, which activates pre-existing cancer genes that had been dormant. It was previously believed that air pollution triggered genetic mutations that lead to cancer.
研究人员发现，污染空气中的细颗粒物会导致肺部炎症，从而激活此前一直处于休眠状态的癌症基因。此前，人们认为空气污染会引发基因突变，导致癌症。
The findings, based on research led by the Francis Crick Institute in London and funded by Cancer Research UK, were released at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Paris on Saturday.
这项研究由伦敦弗朗西斯•克里克研究所领导，由英国癌症研究所资助，研究结果于周六在巴黎举行的欧洲医学肿瘤学会大会上公布。
As fewer people smoke, air pollution is emerging more clearly as a cause of tumours in the lungs. An estimated 300,000 lung cancer deaths per year worldwide are caused by very fine pollutant particles with a diameter below 2.5 microns, known as PM2.5, which are emitted in vehicle exhaust and fossil fuel combustion.
随着吸烟的人越来越少，空气污染越来越明显地成为导致肺部肿瘤的原因。据估计，全球每年有30万人死于肺癌，原因是汽车尾气和化石燃料燃烧排放的直径小于2.5微米的非常细的污染物颗粒，即PM2.5。
“Our study has fundamentally changed how we view lung cancer in people who have never smoked,” said project leader Charles Swanton. “Cells with cancer-causing mutations accumulate naturally as we age, but they are normally inactive. We’ve demonstrated that air pollution wakes these cells up in the lungs, encouraging them to grow and potentially form tumours.”
项目负责人查尔斯•斯旺顿(Charles Swanton)说：“我们的研究从根本上改变了我们对从未吸烟人群肺癌的看法。随着我们年龄的增长，具有致癌突变的细胞会自然积累，但它们通常不活跃。我们已经证明，空气污染会唤醒肺部的这些细胞，促使它们生长，并可能形成肿瘤。”
The project is part of a £14mn Cancer Research UK programme to understand how lung cancer starts and progresses. The scientists analysed data about PM2.5 exposure and lung cancer in 400,000 people from the UK, Taiwan and South Korean, and carried out laboratory experiments with mice, human cells and tissues.
该项目是英国癌症研究项目的一部分，该项目耗资1400万英镑，旨在了解肺癌的开始和发展过程。科学家们分析了来自英国、台湾和韩国的40万人的PM2.5暴露和肺癌数据，并对小鼠、人体细胞和组织进行了实验室实验。
Two important environmental carcinogens, tobacco smoke and ultraviolet light, damage DNA and create mutations that generate tumours. But the researchers found no evidence that PM2.5 particles directly mutate DNA, which prompted them to look for a different explanation.
两种重要的环境致癌物，烟草烟雾和紫外线，会破坏DNA并产生产生肿瘤的突变。但研究人员没有发现PM2.5颗粒直接突变DNA的证据，这促使他们寻找另一种解释。
They found that the particles caused inflammation, which activated pre-existing mutations in genes that drive the development of many lung cancers.
他们发现，这些颗粒会引发炎症，从而激活驱动许多肺癌发展的基因中已经存在的突变。
“The mechanism we’ve identified could ultimately help us to find better ways to prevent and treat lung cancer in never smokers,” said Swanton. “The next step is to discover why some lung cells with mutations become cancerous when exposed to pollutants while others don’t.”
斯旺顿说：“我们确定的机制最终可以帮助我们找到更好的方法来预防和治疗从不吸烟的人患肺癌。下一步是发现为什么一些突变的肺细胞暴露在污染物中会癌变，而另一些不会。”
The findings may be applicable to other cancers associated with air pollution, including mesothelioma and tumours of the throat and mouth, said Emilia Lim, another member of the Crick research team. “Ninety-nine per cent of the world’s population lives in areas which exceed annual World Health Organization limits for PM2.5, underlining the public health challenges posed by air pollution across the globe,” she added.
克里克研究小组的另一名成员艾米利亚·林(Emilia Lim)说，这一发现可能适用于与空气污染有关的其他癌症，包括间皮瘤和咽喉和口腔肿瘤。她补充说：“世界上99%的人口生活在PM2.5超标的地区，这凸显了全球空气污染对公共健康构成的挑战。”
One way to counteract the harmful effect of air pollution may be to block a molecule called interleukin-1beta, which plays a key role in the inflammatory response to PM2.5. The team found that this approach worked in mice.
抵制空气污染的有害影响的一种方法可能是阻断一种叫做白细胞介素-1 beta的分子，这种分子在对PM2.5的炎症反应中起着关键作用。研究小组发现，这种方法在小鼠身上起了作用。
Tony Mok, professor of medical oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was not involved in the study, said the research findings were “intriguing and exciting”.
没有参与这项研究的香港中文大学肿瘤医学教授莫树锦(Tony Mok)表示，研究结果“有趣而令人兴奋”。
“It means that we can ask whether, in the future, it will be possible to use lung scans to look for precancerous lesions in the lungs and try to reverse them with medicines,” he said.
他说：“这意味着我们可以询问，在未来，是否有可能使用肺部扫描来寻找肺部的癌前病变，并试图用药物逆转病变。”
He joined Swanton in emphasising the importance of reducing air pollution to lower the risk of disease.
他和斯旺顿一样，强调减少空气污染对降低疾病风险的重要性。
“We have known about the link between pollution and lung cancer for a long time, and we now have a possible explanation for it,” Mok said. “As consumption of fossil fuels goes hand in hand with pollution and carbon emissions, we have a strong mandate for tackling these issues — for both environmental and health reasons.”
莫树锦说：“我们早就知道污染和肺癌之间的联系，现在我们有了一个可能的解释。由于化石燃料的消耗与污染和碳排放的同时增加，我们有强有力的紧迫感来解决这些问题——无论是出于环境原因还是健康原因。”