New Breast Cancer Drug

By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: October 22, 2003

This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report.
Researchers say a drug developed several years ago reduces the chance that older women will get breast cancer for a second time.
The drug is called letrozole. It suppresses¹ the production of 1)the female² hormone³ estrogen. 2)Cancerous growths need 3)estrogen to spread.
Breast cancer is most treatable early in its development. Current practice calls for doctors to operate to remove the growth. Then women take 4)chemotherapy drugs to kill any cancer that remains⁴. After that, women are supposed to take the drug 5)tamoxifen (ta-MOX-i-fen) for five years. This is to prevent the cancer from coming back. But tamoxifen seems to lose its effect after five years.
Researchers have found that fifteen to thirty percent of patients get breast cancer again within ten years after they stop the tamoxifen. These are the women that doctors hope the new drug can help.
Novartis 6)Pharmaceuticals⁵ makes letrozole under the name Femara. The drug is already approved in the United States to treat late forms of breast cancer.
The new study involved more than five-thousand women in the United States, Canada and Europe. All had breast cancer once and been treated with tamoxifen. For the study, half took letrozole once a day. The others took a 7)placebo⁶, a pill they did not know contained only sugar.
In all, two-hundred-seven women got breast cancer for a second time. Of these, one-hundred-thirty-two had taken the placebo. Seventy-five had been given letrozole.
The Canadian-led study found that the drug reduced the chance of cancer returning by forty-three percent. The researchers planned to study the women for five years. But they stopped after two-and-a-half years. They said the effect was so clear, it would have been wrong to keep the drug from the other women in the study.
Because of the lack of estrogen, the women on letrozole had a higher risk of bone-thinning 8)osteoporosis. They were also more likely to experience effects similar to those of 9)menopause, like feeling hot all of a sudden.
Ending the study early left some questions unanswered -- for example, how long should women take the drug. The study involved the National Cancer Institutes in Canada and the United States. The findings⁷ appear next month in the New England Journal⁸ of Medicine.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

注释：
1) the female hormone estrogen 女性荷尔蒙雌激素
2) cancerous [`kAnsErEs] adj.癌的
3) estrogen [5estrEdVEn] n.（生化）雌激素
4) chemotherapy [7kemEu5WerEpi] n.化学疗法
5) tamoxifen [tE`mCksIfen ] n.（药）三苯氧胺,它莫西芬(一种抗雌激素,用于治疗妇女乳腺癌或不育症)
6) pharmaceuticals [7fB:mE5sju:tikElz] n.医药品
7) placebo [plE5si:bEu] n.安慰剂
8) osteoporosis [7CstiEupC:5rEusis] n.骨质疏松症
9) menopause [5menEpC:z]n.（生理）绝经期, 更年期

1 suppresses   

抑制（感情等）( suppress的第三人称单数 )； 压制； 禁止发表； 阻止…的生长（或发展）

参考例句：

• The regime ruthlessly suppresses all dissent. 这个政权残酷压制所有不同意见。
• Hemingway suppresses emtion, Wolfe engulfs the reader in feeling. 海明威感情压抑，沃尔夫却把读者卷进感情的漩涡。

2 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

3 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。

4 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。

5 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

7 findings   

n.发现物( finding的名词复数 )；调查（或研究）的结果；（陪审团的）裁决

参考例句：

• It behoves us to study these findings carefully. 我们理应认真研究这些发现。
• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。

8 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。