《中国日报》人物专访：谣言粉碎者李治中
The following article is from 向日葵儿童 Author 专业的
菠萝说
2021年2月1日，CHINA DAILY（中国日报）刊登了对我的采访。非常有幸能有这样一次英文报导，谢谢大家的支持！愿每个孩子都有健康光明的未来！
2021年2月1日
李治中博士专访刊登在CHINA DAILY第18版
以下内容为中文译稿，如需看英文原稿，请拉至分割线处。
文 | 王茜
翻译 | 杜和羲
本文首发在公众号“向日葵儿童”
据2020年12月披露的世界卫生组织国际癌症研究机构的最新数据，去年在中国，平均每分钟就有9人被诊断出罹患癌症，另有6人死于癌症。
据估计，中国有近四分之一的人到75岁时，会患上一种或多种癌症，这意味着它可以影响到任何人。在李治中看来，尽管这些数字可能描绘出一幅惨淡的景象，但确诊癌症并不一定就意味着被判了死刑。
“癌症患者人数持续增长的主要原因是我们寿命的延长和诊断能力的提高。”试图帮助揭开癌症神秘面纱的科普作家李治中解释说。他补充道，随着被确诊人数的不断攀升，正好到了让公众更多了解这种疾病的时候。
37岁的他，自2013年开始，以“菠萝”为笔名在互联网上发布通俗易懂且可靠的癌症科普文章。
他在2018年发表的演讲“癌症的真相”，在一席这个类似于TED Talk的演讲平台上被观看了超过1亿次。
点击视频观看演讲
在演讲中，李治中揭穿了许多在网上广为流传的与癌症有关的谣言，也谈到了来自陕西西安电子科技大学的21岁学生魏则西，他于2016年因罕见的软组织癌去世。
“这场悲剧最使我震惊，因为他去世前一年半，我就写了一篇关于他接受的那种生物疗法无效的文章。”李治中在演讲中说，令他深感遗憾的是，这篇文章没能被更多像魏则西的人所看到。
“我一直在写这些文章，因为我觉得，如果更多的人可以读到它们，也许可以挽救一些生命甚至家庭。”李治中说道。
2020年8月
李治中与横纹肌肉瘤结疗一周年的
小苹果父女在一起
他的微信公众号中有一个栏目，专门用来辟谣。例如红薯是一种抗癌食品，癌症会传染，白酒会杀死癌细胞，使用手机会增加患癌风险，或是癌细胞可能会被饿死。
“随着过去二、三十年，新疗法和检测方法的发展，许多类型的癌症都可以作为慢性病进行治疗。”李治中说道。
根据IARC的研究，在中国，肺癌是最常见的癌种，其次是大肠癌、胃癌、乳腺癌和肝癌。肺癌是导致全国范围内癌症死亡的主要原因，去年它夺去了约71万人的生命。
缘起
李治中仍然记得在2005年母亲被诊断出患有乳腺癌时，自己的震惊和沮丧。尽管他当时已是清华大学生物系的高年级生，但他对这种疾病一无所知，也对母亲的检测报告中那些数据和医学术语一窍不通。
这是李治中第一次认识到网上关于癌症及其治疗方法的可靠信息有多匮乏，以及在做出生死攸关的治疗决策时，有多少关于该疾病的“谣言”会误导患者。
“我母亲确诊癌症改变了我的人生轨迹。我的家人在她的治疗和护理方面遇到了各种各样的挑战，这使我想以科学的方式帮助更多的人了解这种疾病。” 李治中说。做过乳腺切除手术后，他的母亲接受了化疗。
“正是她的经历促使我决定去美国学习最先进的生物医学研究。”李治中回忆道。
2019年8月
李治中与尤文肉瘤结疗一年的大文在一起
2009年从杜克大学获得癌症分子生物学博士学位后，他在美国的诺华生物医学研究所担任癌症药物开发部实验室负责人，一直致力于抗癌新靶点的鉴定和验证，直到2018年。
2013年8月，他写了第一篇有关癌症与肿瘤区别的文章。他在文章中解释说，肿瘤是一种异常的细胞生长状况，在身体的某些部位形成病变或肿块；而癌症是失控的细胞在体内生长并扩散。这篇文章旨在指明，并非所有的肿瘤都是癌症。
迄今为止，他已在微信公众号上发布了数百篇文章。有些文章要花了他十多个小时来查阅资料和数据，将英文术语翻译成中文，并咨询其他医生或专家确认信息的准确性。
“撰写这些文章，就像回答我自己16年前的疑问和困惑一样。”李治中说。
他出版了四本有关癌症的书，以帮助患者、家属和医护人员，更好地了解这种疾病。
现任国家卫生健康委员会副主任的曾益新教授在李治中写作的《癌症·真相》一书序言中说，把癌症给公众讲清楚并非易事，一方面因为癌症是非常复杂的疾病，讲清楚很难；另一方面是因为癌症领域科研进展非常快，每天都有很多新内容。
“我希望我的书不仅给读者提供所需的信息和数据，而且能为他们带来希望。”李治中说。
慈善基金会
2018年，他辞去了美国的工作，在广东省深圳市成立了拾玉儿童公益基金会，专注科普患教、药物研发等，旨在提高社会对儿童癌症的认知。在中国，每年新诊断的儿童癌症近40000例。
李治中说：“儿童癌症非常罕见，约占所有癌症的1％。所以这一群体在检测和治疗方面被忽略了。”他补充说道，每个癌症患者都应被予以关注。
根据IARC，儿童癌症与成人癌症有很大不同，涉及不同类型的癌种，且发生频率要低得多。今天，在高收入国家，80％的儿童癌症患者有很好的生存机会，相比之下50年前只有20％。
过去的30年中，在全球范围内，仅批准了四种专门为儿童癌症开发的新药。
“对儿童癌症的研究没有太大的经济利益。这就是为什么需要我们这样的公益机构。”李治中说。
2020年8月
李治中在山东省肿瘤医院儿童肿瘤科
与孩子们做游戏
去年，该基金会与搜索引擎百度合作，提供了25条与儿童癌症有关的百科词条，这些条目由国内顶尖医院的19位儿童癌症临床专家编辑并审核，信息涵盖各癌种的病因、症状、治疗和预后等。截至12月，这些词条已被访问超过3000万次。
“两年内，基金会已帮助许多患儿和他们的父母，通过线上或线下的方式获取到科普信息。”李治中说。
他补充说，除了患者教育外，他希望基金会有一天能够与顶级专家、制药企业和研究院所合作研究儿童抗癌药物，为世界各地所有罹患癌症的儿童带来希望。
“每个孩子都应该有健康光明的未来。”李治中笑着说。
----------我是英文原稿的分割线----------
The myth-buster
By Wang Qian | CHINA DAILY
Updated: Feb 1, 2021
Every minute last year, on average, nine people in China were diagnosed with cancer, while six others died from it, according to the latest data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization, which was released in December.
It is estimated that by the age of 75, one in four people in China will develop cancer in one form or another, which means that it can affect anyone. But for Li Zhizhong, while such figures may paint a bleak picture, a cancer diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence.
"The main reasons for the growing number of cancer patients is our increasing life span and detection ability," explains Li, a science writer attempting to help demystify the topic of cancer online, adding that, with an increasing number of people diagnosed, it is time to ensure the public are better informed about the disease.
Since 2013, under the pen name Pineapple, the 37-year-old has posted reliable and reader-friendly articles about cancer on the internet.
His 2018 speech－Truth About Cancer－on Yixi, a speech-sharing platform similar to TedTalk, has been viewed more than 100 million times. In the speech, Li debunked many myths and misconceptions related to cancer that have been widely circulated online. He spoke about Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old student from Xidian University in Shaanxi province, who died from a rare cancer of the soft tissue in 2016.
"The tragedy shocked me most, because one and a half years before his death, I had written an article about the ineffectiveness of immunotherapy treatment," Li said during his speech, adding that it was his deep regret that the article hadn't reached more people like Wei.
"I keep writing these articles, because I hope that, if they can be read by more people, maybe some lives, or even families, can be saved," Li says.
His official WeChat account has a section in which he dispels cancer myths, such as sweet potatoes being an anti-cancer food, that cancer is transmissible from someone who has it, suggestions that baijiu kills cancer cells, the assertion that red meat causes cancer, the theory that cellphone use increases the risk of getting cancer and the idea that cancer can be starved to death.
"With the development of new treatment methods and advances in detection over the past two or three decades, many cancer types can be managed as chronic illnesses," Li says.
In China, lung cancer is the most commonly occurring variant, followed by colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer and liver cancer, according to IARC. Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death nationwide, claiming about 710,000 lives last year, according to the organization.
Starting point
Li still remembers how shocked and upset he was when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. Even though he was then a senior major in biology at Tsinghua University, he had no clue about the disease or understanding of the data and medical terms in his mother's test report.
It was the first time that Li recognized the dearth of credible information about cancer and its treatment online, and how many myths about the disease there were to mislead patients when making critical treatment decisions.
"My mother's cancer diagnosis has changed the course of my life. My family has encountered various challenges in her treatment and care, which makes me want to help more people learn about the disease in a scientific way," Li says. After breast-removal surgery, his mother underwent a course of chemotherapy.
"Her experience made me decide to study in the United States for its advanced biomedical research," Li remembers.
After graduating from Duke University with a PhD in molecular cancer biology in 2009, he worked in the US for Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research as a research investigator in the department of Oncology Drug Discovery, focusing on new target identification and validation until 2018.
In August 2013, he wrote his first article about the differences between cancer and tumors. In the article, he explains that a tumor is a condition where there is abnormal cellular growth thus forming a lesion or a lump in some part of the body, while cancer is a degenerative condition where there is uncontrollable cellular growth that spreads in the body. The article was keen to note that not all tumors are cancerous.
He has since posted hundreds of articles on his official WeChat. Some articles have taken him about 10 hours to check material and data, translate English terms into Chinese, and consult other doctors or experts for accurate information.
"When writing the articles, it is like answering the questions and doubts that I had 16 years ago," Li says.
He has published four books about cancer in a bid to help patients, families and healthcare providers to have a better understanding of the disease.
In his preface for Li's book, Cancer Insights, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, says that, on one hand, it is not easy to introduce cancer to the public for its complicacy; on the other, cancer research and development has been very quick, with new studies appearing every day.
"I hope that my books will not only provide information and data that readers need, but also provide them with a hopeful outlook for the future," Li says.
Charity foundation
In 2018, he quit his job in the US and founded the Shiyu Children Foundation in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. It aims to promote awareness, patient education and drug discovery for pediatric cancers, of which 40,000 new cases are diagnosed every year in China.
"Childhood cancers are rare, making up about 1 percent of all cancers. As a result, these groups have been neglected in detection and treatment," Li says, adding that everyone with cancer should be concerned.
According to IARC, cancer in children is very different from cancer in adults, involving different cancer types and occurring much less frequently. Today, in high-income countries, 80 percent of childhood cancer patients have a good chance of survival, compared with only 20 percent 50 years ago.
Globally in the last 30 years, only four new drugs have been approved that were specifically developed to treat children with cancer.
"There is not much economic benefit in the research of childhood cancers. That's why our organization is needed to make a difference," Li says.
Last year, the foundation cooperated with search engine Baidu to provide scientific information on 25 entries related to pediatric cancers, which have been edited and checked by 19 clinical specialists in children's oncology from the country's top hospitals. The information covers details on the causes, symptoms, treatments, prognosis to these cancer types. As of December, the information has been accessed more than 30 million times.
"Within two years, the organization has helped parents and children with cancer to get access to scientific information, online and offline," Li says.
He adds that besides educational program, he hopes that one day the foundation can cooperate with top experts, pharmacies and academies in the research of pediatric cancer drugs, bringing hope to all children with cancer around the world.
"Every child deserves a bright and healthy future," Li says, smiling.
----------我是准备送礼的分割线----------
在我们『奇文共赏』互动的第一弹中，看到了很多的精彩回复，获得高赞前三的评论如下👇
我们会送上菠萝玩偶和菠萝亲笔签名的明信片，也欢迎大家多多参与，期待在下一期看到你的出色发挥！
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