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If you or someone you know has had cancer, then you know how frightening and painful treatment can be.
如果你或你認識的人得了癌癥，你就會知道治療的過程是何其的可怕和痛苦。
But during the past few decades doctors have developed apromising new procedure called proton therapy that could revolutionize the way wefight cancer.
但是在過去的幾十年里醫生們已經研發出一種新的有前景的治療過程，叫做質子治療。
Proton therapy is basically a new kind of radiation treatment.
質子治療可以徹底改變我們對抗癌癥的方法。
Until recently, allradiation therapy used X-Rays.
質子治療從根本上說是放射療法的一種。
X-Rays are good at destroying cancer cells, but theproblem is that when they pass through the body, they attack not only cancer cellsbut also surrounding healthy cells.
直到最近，所有的放射療法都是采用的X射線。X射線能夠摧毀癌細胞，但問題是當穿過身體時，它們不僅攻擊癌細胞，也同樣會攻擊周圍的健康細胞。
So doctors have been forced to use radiation doses low enough to minimize damage to non-cancerous cells.
所以醫生們一直被迫使用較低的輻射劑量來減少對非癌細胞的傷害。
Proton therapy is a more accurate way of attacking cancer with radiation.
質子療法是用輻射治療癌癥一種更為準確的方法。
Unlike X-Rays, which go through a patient and out the other side, protons penetrate only to the desired point and then stop.
與X射線不同的是，穿過病人身體并從身體的另一邊出去時，質子只會穿透所需要的點，然后就停止。
So cells deeper in the body than where the tumor is are not affected.
因此，在人體內比腫瘤位置更深的細胞不會受到影響。
Protons also release most of their destructive energy just before they stop, sohealthy cells in front of the tumor get less radiation than the cancer cells do.
質子一停下來就會釋放大部分的破壞性能量，所以腫瘤外部的健康細胞比癌細胞受到的輻射少。
Protontherapy's accuracy means that doctors can train high doses of proton radiation on tumors without worrying about causing collateral damage.
質子治療的精確性意味著醫生們可以在腫瘤的治療上使用高劑量的質子輻射，并且不用擔心會引起附帶損害。
Proton radiation is not a miracle cure–in fact, it's limited to treating localizedcancers that have not spread throughout the body.
質子放射療法其實并不是一個治療的奇跡。它僅局限于治療沒有擴散到全身各處的局部腫瘤。
Still, it's an important new toolfor battling a deadly disease, especially for tumors deep inside the head or neck,where doing surgery would be too risky.
不過它仍然是一個對抗致命疾病的重要工具，特別是對于頭部和頸部深處的腫瘤，在那里做手術太冒險了。
