Cancer is a tale of two sets of genetic code, your own and your tumor’s—and tracing the unique areas of damage makes for a way t

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问题     Cancer is a tale of two sets of genetic code, your own and your tumor’s—and tracing the unique areas of damage makes for a way to target treatment.
    Fifty years after the discovery of the first direct genetic link to cancer, scientists are assessing the state of so-called targeted therapy—with nearly 30 treatments on the market and a dozen or so more under study. " We’re still not using the ’ C ’word, ’ cure,’ " cautioned medicine director Jeff Boyd of Fox Chase Cancer Center, who helped organized a meeting to examine the future of targeted therapy. But, he added, "there is real potential to transform many cancers into chronic diseases. "
    One challenge is how to expand the number of targets to attack, in part by answering what the new chief of the National Cancer Institute calls the "big questions" about what makes this disease so intractable. What makes a tumor metastasize or spread through the body? Why some tumors spread and others don’t? What programs those tumor cells to invade, say, the liver instead of the bone or the lung? These are factors that undoubtedly could be new treatment targets.
    A domino effect of genetic alterations is required to cause any of the 200 diseases collectively called cancer. Some occur in the person, making them more prone to illness. But tumors also have their own genetic signature—four to seven genetic changes that are critical to turning, say, a normal breast or colon or liver cell into a cancerous one, and a pattern of activity that signals how aggressive that malignancy will be. Those unique patterns also offer targets for treatment, drugs that zero in on the particular genetic pathways fueling the person’s cancer—and even vaccine-like therapies, a fledgling field that aims to train patients’ immune systems to recognize and fight their tumors.
    As the targeted therapies work differently—shrinking a tumor or slowing its growth—than the tumor-destroying approaches of chemotherapy and radiation, it’s harder to prove a benefit. But Allison Frey, whose aggressive form of thyroid cancer spread to her liver in inoperable patches, says that approach has made her cancer an illness she can manage much like a diabetic manages insulin. For nearly five years, she has swallowed an experimental pill that shrank those patches and kept them from growing back, working through a pathway that targets a tumor’s blood supply. "Honestly, to me it’s just like any other chronic illness," said Frey, who’s part of a study at Fox Chase. "I show up for work every day and live life...with minimal issues. "  
Medicine director Jeff Boyd believes that______.

选项 A、the new therapy is promising
B、cancer cannot be cured
C、cancer may essentially be chronic
D、the new therapy faces many challenges

答案A

解析 细节题。本题解答需正确理解Jeff Boyd的观点,定位至第二段。虽然他认为We’re still not usingthe‘C’word,‘cure,’即目前还不敢说能够治疗癌症,但根据本段最后一句there is real potential totransform many cancers into chronic diseases,可知他认为这种治疗方法存在着巨大的潜力,前景是乐观的。由此可知[A]是答案。四个选项中[D]不是Boyd所谈的内容,通过定位可直接排除。[B]说法最为绝对,曲解了Boyd的第一句话,虽然目前还不能根治,但并不代表不能治疗,这也不是Boyd说话的重点所在,故[B]可排除。[C]则曲解了real potential to transform many cancers into chronic diseases,原文是说要将癌症变得像慢性病一样可控,而不是癌症本质上就是慢性病。
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