美国国家公共电台 NPR Don't Screen For Thyroid Cancer, Task Force Says

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Screening healthy people to look for thyroid cancer does more harm than good. That's the word from doctors on a federal health advisory¹ committee. NPR's Richard Harris has the story.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE²: More and more people are being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the United States, but the death rate remains³ very low, and it isn't going up. The simple explanation - more and more harmless cancers are being detected.

SETH LANDEFELD: I think the common conception is that every cancer is going to grow until it's stopped or removed or kills you. That is not the case with these cancers.

HARRIS: Dr. Seth Landefeld is on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force which has come out strongly against screening for these cancers in the current issue of JAMA. The treatment isn't benign⁴. It usually involves surgical⁵ removal of the thyroid gland⁶ and a lifetime of drugs to replace the hormone⁷ the gland produces.

LANDEFELD: And in a couple of percent of patients, it leads to injury to the laryngeal nerves that can lead to voice and swallowing difficulties.

HARRIS: And all these surgeries don't lead to longer or healthier lives. Dr. H. Gilbert Welch at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice says the task force made a good call.

H GILBERT WELCH: The evidence in thyroid cancer is if you look early, you just find a whole new category of patients that has the disease but is never going to suffer from it at all, but they will suffer from the treatment.

HARRIS: He says South Korea is the poster child for overdiagnosis. Some years ago, doctors there started a mass screening campaign to look for thyroid cancer.

WELCH: And 15 years later, thyroid cancer became the most common cancer in Korea, more common than breast, more common than colon⁸, more common than lung.

HARRIS: Tens of thousands of Koreans were getting surgery.

WELCH: But nothing changed in the death rate. The death rate was totally flat.

HARRIS: Landefeld, who's at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says his task force's call to avoid testing for thyroid cancer only applies to people without any symptoms.

LANDEFELD: As soon as somebody has symptoms, you know, such as a swelling⁹ in the neck or change in their voice or change in their swallowing or pain in the neck, you're in a different ballpark. You'll really want to sort those symptoms out.

HARRIS: Thyroid cancer caught at that point is still curable most of the time. Richard Harris, NPR News.

1 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

5 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

6 gland   

n.腺体，(机)密封压盖，填料盖

参考例句：

• This is a snake's poison gland.这就是蛇的毒腺。
• Her mother has an underactive adrenal gland.她的母亲肾上腺机能不全。

7 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

8 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

9 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。