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Last Wednesday, researchers with the American Cancer Society published a study suggesting that for a number of cancers, case rates are rising from one generation to the next.
上周三，美国癌症协会的研究人员发表了一项研究，表明与上一代人相比，许多癌症在下一代里的发病率都更高。
They looked at 34 different cancers, and in eight of them, incidence rates went up with every five-year interval they looked at from 1920 to 1990.
他们发现，在研究的34种癌症中，有8种癌症的发病率在1920年至1990年间，每隔五年发病率就会上升。
So in other words, the cohort born in 1965 had higher rates than the cohort born in 1960, but lower rates than the 1970 cohort, and so on.
换句话说，1965年出生的人口患癌比率高于1960年的人，但是低于1970年的人，以此类推。
In another nine cancers, while rates had declined for some period of time, they started to rise again in younger cohorts recently.
在其他九种癌症中，虽然发病率在一段时间内有所下降，但最近在年轻人群中又开始上升。
The researchers emphasized that they don't yet have a conclusive explanation for the trend.
研究人员强调，他们尚未对这一趋势做出确凿的解释。
And while headlines often point to sedentary lifestyles and higher weights as a leading culprit, that's particularly true for the recent surge in colorectal cancers in young people, other experts have sounded the alarm to say that these factors alone cannot explain the spike.
虽然头条新闻经常指出久坐的生活方式和体重增加是主要罪魁祸首，特别是近期年轻人结直肠癌的激增，但一些专家已经敲响了警钟，称光是这些因素还无法解释这种激增。
But we did get some good news on that front.
不过这方面也有一些好消息。
Last Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new blood test for colorectal cancer.
上周一，美国食品和药物管理局批准了一项针对结直肠癌的新血液检测。
Guardant Health's test is called Shield, and it was previously available as a diagnostic tool for doctors, but its out-of-pocket price tag ran almost $900. Hopefully, now that it's FDA approved, it will be covered by more insurance carriers.
GuardantHealth的测试名为Shield，此前，医生可以用它作为诊断工具，但其自付费用价格接近900美元。希望现在FDA已经批准了，它将被更多的保险公司覆盖。
Shield isn't a replacement for colonoscopies. Those procedures are crucial for spotting and even removing the polyps that can lead to colon cancer, and of course for detecting cancer itself.
Shield不能替代结肠镜检查，结肠镜检查对于发现甚至切除可能导致结肠癌的息肉以及检测癌症本身至关重要。
Research suggests the non-invasive blood test is 83% effective in catching colorectal cancer, but it works way better in late stages of the disease than in early stages.
研究表明，这种非侵入性血液检测在检测结直肠癌方面的有效性为83%，但它在疾病晚期比在早期有效得多。
Still, we know the colonoscopies are notoriously time consuming partially on account of the need for bowel prep-and that's often quite an unpleasant experience, so people tend to avoid them.
尽管如此，由于结肠镜检查需要做肠道准备，比较耗时，而且让人感觉不甚愉快，所以人们总想避免这种检查。
The hope is that this blood test will cover some of the gaps that we know exist in screening.
我们希望这种血液测试能够弥补筛查中存在的一些空白。
Another recent cancer study highlighted something that we just get more and more evidence is super important-the microbiome
另一项近期的癌症研究强调了良好的微生物组日益明显的重要性。
Scientists found that certain mouth bacteria seem to provide some benefit to people who have head and neck cancers, basically leading to better outcomes and survival rates.
科学家发现，某些口腔细菌似乎对患有头颈癌的人有一些益处，能带来更好的结果和存活率。
The researchers also found that the type of bacteria in question, which is a very common resident of the mouth called fusobacterium, could actually outright kill some cancer cells, at least in a petri dish setting.
研究人员还发现，这种细菌是口腔中非常常见的一种叫做梭杆菌的细菌，它实际上可以直接杀死一些癌细胞，至少在培养皿中是这样。
In completely different health news, let's turn to cat poop.
再来看一些完全不同的健康新闻，来看看猫的粪便。
Most people have probably heard of Toxoplasma gondii, the parasitic protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis.
大多数人可能都听说过刚地弓形虫，这种寄生性原生动物会引起弓形虫病。
The parasite reproduces in the intestinal tracts of cats and infects other mammals through contact with their fecal matter.
寄生虫在猫的肠道中繁殖，并通过接触其粪便感染其他哺乳动物。
Humans can also get it from eating raw or undercooked meat.
人类也可能因食用生肉或未煮熟的肉而感染。
The parasite is infamous for causing infected rodents to lose their fear of cats, which is among the freakiest things a protozoon can make an animal do. Toxoplasma gondii is also known for raising the risk of miscarriage in pregnant people.
这种寄生虫会让受感染的啮齿动物不再害怕猫，这真是寄生动物能让寄主做的最怪异的事情了。刚地弓形虫还能增加孕妇流产风险，这一点也很出名。
Last week researchers published a new study suggesting the parasite could be hijacked for positive purposes.
上周，研究人员发表了一项新的研究，表明可以利用这种寄生虫产生积极效果。
So one of the things that makes this microbe so dangerous is its ability to cross the blood brain barrier and that's something that's notoriously tricky to do on purpose, for example, when it comes to delivering medication.
简而言之，科学家们利用了这种微生物穿越血脑屏障的能力，而在输送药物时，血脑屏障可是出了名的棘手。
Now this research is still very much in its early stages, but it looks like toxoplasma could potentially be engineered to deliver therapeutic proteins to the brain.
这项研究仍处于早期阶段，但看起来弓形虫有可能被用来向大脑输送治疗性蛋白质。
The scientists had some success using rodent models.
科学家们在利用啮齿动物模型方面取得了一些成功。
