Name: 你的身體五分鐘前殺死了癌症！ (Your Body Killed Cancer 5 Minutes Ago)
Uploaded: 2026-01-23T17:41:11.000Z
Duration: 9 min 14 s

分詞構句

Somewhere in your body, your immune system just quietly killed one of your own cells, stopping it from becoming cancer and saving your life.

在你身體的某個地方，你的免疫系統默默地殺死了一個你自己的細胞，阻止它變成癌症，拯救了你的生命。

The vast majority of cancer cells you develop will be killed without you ever noticing.

你發展出來的大部分癌細胞都會在你還沒察覺到的時候就被殺死。

Which is an incredibly hard job because of what cancer cells are.

這是一項非常艱鉅的任務，因為癌細胞的本質就是如此。

Parts of yourself that start to behave as individuals, even if it hurts you.

身體的一部分開始像獨立個體一樣行動，即使這會傷害到你。

What is cancer and how does your body kill it all the time?

什麼是癌症？你的身體又是如何一直殺死它的呢？

Cancer is when corrupted cells multiply uncontrollably.

癌症是癌變細胞無法控制地增生。

It can emerge from basically every type of cell in your body.

它可以從你體內的幾乎所有類型的細胞中出現。

So there's not just a single type of cancer, but hundreds.

所以癌症不只一種，而是有好幾百種。

有些生長緩慢，有些則具侵略性。

In a sense, a cell that becomes cancer turns into something ancient and something new.

從某種意義上來說，癌變細胞變成了一種古老又全新的東西。

Over billions of years, evolution has moulded cells to survive and thrive in a hostile environment, fighting for space and resources.

數十億年來，演化塑造了細胞，讓牠們能在惡劣的環境中生存和茁壯，爭奪空間和資源。

Until a new and exciting way of life emerged.

直到一種嶄新且令人興奮的生活方式出現。

Cooperation, a division of labor that allowed cells to specialize and become more successful together.

合作，一種分工，讓細胞能夠特化，一起變得更成功。

For a multicellular being to stay healthy, the well being of the collective has to matter more than the survival of the individual cell.

要讓一個多細胞生物保持健康，集體的福祉必須比單個細胞的生存更重要。

Cancer cells stop being part of the collective and become individuals again.

癌變細胞停止成為集體的一部分，再次變成個體。

Your body can handle a few rogue cells, but

你的身體可以應付少數異常細胞，但

some cancer cells divide again and again, Becoming a sort of new organism within you.

有些癌細胞會不斷分裂，在你體內形成一種新的生物體。

Taking resources you need to survive, Competing for the space you inhabit, Destroying the organs they were part of in the process.

它們會奪走你生存所需的資源，爭奪你棲息的空間，並在過程中破壞它們原本所屬的器官。

Despite the harm they cause, Cancer cells are not evil.

儘管造成了傷害，癌細胞本身並非邪惡。

Cells are protein robots that just follow their programming, which, unfortunately has been corrupted.

細胞就像蛋白質機器人，只是遵循它們的編程，而不幸的是，這個編程已經損壞了。

這就是細胞的靈魂，簡單來說。

Your cells have a nucleus filled with DNA.

你的細胞有一個充滿 DNA 的細胞核。

It consists of genes, instructions for how to build proteins and when to make each one.

它由基因組成，這些基因是關於如何建構蛋白質以及何時製造每個蛋白質的指令。

These building instructions are copied and transferred to ribosomes, where they're used to make proteins.

這些建構指令會被複製並傳送到核糖體，在那裡用於製造蛋白質。

What kind of proteins your cells make, Determine what they can do.

你的細胞製造什麼樣的蛋白質，就決定了它們能做什麼。

The important thing here is that a corrupt gene means you get a corrupt protein, which will get important later.

這裡比較重要的是，一個損壞的基因就代表你會得到一個損壞的蛋白質，這點之後會變得更重要。

It mutates tens of thousands of times each day, most of the time without any special cause just by being alive.

每天，你的 DNA 會發生好幾萬次的突變，大部分時候沒有什麼特別的原因，只是因為活著。

Almost all of these mutations are fixed very quickly or are not problematic.

幾乎所有的突變都會被快速修復，不然就是沒有問題。

Still, over time, as your cells make copies of them, damage is accumulating.

不過，隨著時間過去，當你的細胞不斷複製時，損壞也在累積。

Imagine having to make copies from copies from copies for decades.

想像一下，幾十年來你都要從副本的副本再複製。

Maybe one day a hair got on the scanner or a corner got frayed.

也許有一天，掃描器上沾到一根頭髮，或是某個角落有點磨損。

Each new mistake becomes part of the new copies and all the copies that follow.

每個新的錯誤都會成為新副本以及之後所有副本的一部分。

You can increase DNA damage by doing things like smoking, drinking alcohol, by being obese, breathing in asbestos, by not using sunscreen, or contracting a virus like hpv.

你可以透過抽菸、喝酒、肥胖、吸入石棉、不擦防晒乳，或是感染像 HPV 這樣的病毒來增加 DNA 損壞。

But the simplest way to damage DNA and get cancer is to be alive long enough.

不過，得到癌症最簡單的方法就是活得夠久。

For many cancer cases, there is no cause other than bad luck.

很多癌症的發生，除了運氣不好，沒有其他原因。

The damage that leads to cancer, we are simplifying, but

導致癌症的損壞，我們在這裡做簡化，但

roughly there are three categories of genes that need to be corrupted so cancer can arise.

大約有三類基因需要出錯，癌症才會發生。

The first key mutation is in the appropriately named tumour suppressor genes, or TSGs.

第一個關鍵突變發生在名為「腫瘤抑制基因」的基因，簡稱 TSGs。

For one, they produce control mechanisms that continuously scan your DNA for mistakes and copying errors and fix them right away.

其中一個功能是，它們會產生控制機制，不斷掃描你的 DNA，找出錯誤並立即修復。

And then they keep normal cells from multiplying recklessly.

然後，它們也會阻止正常細胞失控地增生。

If TSGs become damaged, your cells basically forget how to repair themselves and can reproduce unchecked.

如果 TSGs 受損，你的細胞基本上就會忘記如何修復自己，並開始不受控制地繁殖。

The second crucial mutation can happen in your oncogenes.

第二個關鍵突變可能發生在致癌基因上。

When oncogenes are turned on, the cell is told to multiply rapidly.

當致癌基因被啟動時，細胞就會被告知要快速增生。

They were super active when you were inside your mother's womb.

當你還在媽媽肚子裡的時候，它們超級活躍。

To turn a single original cell into trillions in months, it needs to divide and grow rapidly.

要在幾個月內將一個原始細胞變成數兆個，就需要快速分裂和生長。

These rapid growth genes are turned off when there's enough of you.

當你足夠大的時候，這些快速生長基因就會關閉。

When your oncogenes get corrupted, they basically turn on again.

當你的致癌基因受損時，它們基本上就會重新啟動。

The third crucial mutation is in your cell's suicide switch.

第三個關鍵突變發生在你細胞的自殺開關上。

Most cells are constantly recycled and refreshed.

大部分的細胞都會不斷地被回收和更新。

When cells amass too much damage, they usually notice.

當細胞累積太多損傷時，它們通常會注意到。

And special genes trigger a controlled suicide called apoptosis.

而特殊的基因會觸發一個稱為細胞凋亡的受控自殺。

If the genes that control this process get damaged, cells are free to live on despite being dangerously corrupted.

如果控制這個過程的基因受損，細胞即使身處危險的癌變狀態，也能自由地活下去。

So if a cell becomes unable to fix the mistakes in its genetic code, loses the ability to destroy itself when it notices the damage and begins to grow rapidly without restraint, it turns into a young cancer cell.

所以，如果一個細胞無法修復它基因編程中的錯誤，失去在注意到損傷時自我毀滅的能力，並且開始不受約束地快速生長，它就會變成一個初期的癌細胞。

These cells have to be killed as quickly as possible.

While they are bad at this stage, they are still pretty weak and easy to kill.

雖然在這個階段它們表現不佳，但它們仍然很脆弱，很容易被消滅。

But if they continue to mutate and increase in number, they can learn to avoid your defenses and become a real threat.

但如果它們持續突變並數量增加，它們就能學會躲避你的防禦，並成為真正的威脅。

Your immune system is hunting these cells.

你的免疫系統正在追捕這些細胞。

But how do you identify and kill corrupted cells that seem indistinguishable from healthy ones?

但要如何辨識並殺死那些看起來與健康細胞無法區分的癌變細胞呢？

Well, here we come back to the proteins your cells produce and the story they tell.

嗯，這裡我們又回到你的細胞產生的蛋白質，以及它們所講述的故事。

So if, for example, your oncogenes switch back on, they make oncogene proteins.

所以，舉例來說，如果你的致癌基因重新啟動，它們就會製造致癌基因蛋白質。

Your immune system knows that they should not be present if you're an adult.

你的免疫系統知道，如果你是成年人，這些細胞就不該出現。

So to know which cells are corrupt and which are healthy, your immune system needs to know what proteins they're making inside to solve this Evolution came up with MHC class I molecules, a sort of display window that makes cells transparent.

所以，為了知道哪些細胞是癌變的，哪些是健康的，你的免疫系統需要知道它們內部製造了什麼蛋白質，來解決這個問題。演化出了MHC第一類分子，就像一個展示窗，讓細胞變得透明。

Cells constantly take little samples of the proteins they make and put them into thousands of these MHC molecules to showcase what they're doing.

細胞會不斷擷取它們製造的蛋白質樣本，並將它們放入數千個這樣的MHC分子中，來展示它們在做什麼。

The selection is constantly refreshed, always giving an up to date picture.

這些樣本會不斷更新，永遠呈現最新的畫面。

There's a whole library of proteins that are highly dangerous and should not be made by healthy cells.

有一整套蛋白質庫，是極度危險的，健康細胞不應該製造它們。

And your immune system has them all on file.

而你的免疫系統已經將它們全部記錄在案。

It has billions of specialized cells called T cells, made to recognize specific proteins.

它擁有數十億個專門的細胞，稱為T細胞，它們被製造出來辨識特定的蛋白質。

If a T cell sees a forbidden protein in an MHC display window, it knows that the cell is corrupted and kills it immediately.

如果一個T細胞在MHC展示窗看到一個禁止的蛋白質，它就知道這個細胞是癌變的，並立即將其殺死。

What if a cancer cell mutates and finds a way to circumvent this process?

如果一個癌細胞突變，找到規避這個過程的方法該怎麼辦？

All it needs to do is to stop making MHC class I molecules and boom, it's invisible.

它只需要停止製造MHC第一型分子，然後，它就隱形了。

Without display windows, the immune system is blind and can't identify cancer anymore.

沒有了展示窗，免疫系統就瞎了，再也無法辨識癌細胞。

Fortunately, evolution found an ingenious solution.

幸好，演化找到了一個巧妙的解決方法。

像是法官、陪審團和劊子手一樣。

At this very second, hundreds of millions of natural killer cells are patrolling your body, looking for cells that have already turned into cancer or are corrupted by a virus.

在這一刻，數億個自然殺手細胞正在你的體內巡邏，尋找已經癌變或被病毒感染的細胞。

Natural killer cells go from cell to cell to check for one thing.

自然殺手細胞會逐一檢查細胞，只為了一件事。

這個細胞有沒有MHC第一型分子？

And is it doing its duty of showing off what's going on inside itself?

它有沒有盡責地展示它內部的狀況？

This is so amazing because it covers all of your bases.

這真是太厲害了，因為它涵蓋了你所有的基地。

While T cells look for the presence of the unexpected, something that should not be here.

T細胞在尋找意料之外的東西，也就是不該出現在這裡的東西。

Natural killer cells look for the absence of the expected, the absence of something that should be here.

自然殺手細胞則在尋找意料之中的東西的缺失，也就是本該在這裡卻不存在的東西。

The logic is if a cell does not have display windows, it wants to hide something.

邏輯是，如果一個細胞沒有展示窗，它就是想隱藏什麼。

And a cell that hides something must be killed.

而一個隱藏東西的細胞就該被殺死。

What makes the natural killer cell even more metal is that it's always in murder mode.

讓自然殺手細胞更「金屬」的是，它總是處於殺戮模式。

It patrols your body, checking cell after cell with the intention of killing it.

它巡邏你的身體，逐一檢查細胞，意圖將其殺死。

Your healthy cells have to convince it that they should not die today.

你健康的細胞必須說服它，今天不該死。

And a way to do that is to have MHC class I molecules.

而其中一種方法就是擁有MHC第一型分子。

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你的身體五分鐘前殺死了癌症！ (Your Body Killed Cancer 5 Minutes Ago)

constantly

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eventually