TEDGlobal 2011
Elizabeth Murchison: Fighting a contagious cancer
Elizabeth Murchinson: Duke luftuar nje kancer ngjites
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Cfare po e vret djallin e Tasmanise? Nje kancer i helmues eshte duke infektuar mijera -- dhe ndryshe nga shumica kancereve, eshte ngjites. Hulumtuesja Elizabeth Murchison na tregon rreth luftes se saj per te shpetuar Tasmanine, dhe cfare ajo po meson rreth te gjithe kancereve nga ky lloj i pazakonte.
Elizabeth Murchison - Cancer researcher
Elizabeth Murchison studies a mysterious (and contagious) cancer that threatens to wipe out Tasmanian devils. Full bio
Elizabeth Murchison studies a mysterious (and contagious) cancer that threatens to wipe out Tasmanian devils. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
Everyone's familiar with cancer,
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Cdonjeri eshte i njohur me kancerin,
00:19
but we don't normally think of cancer
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por ne normalisht nuk mendojme kancerin
00:21
as being a contagious disease.
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si nje semundje ngjitese.
00:25
The Tasmanian devil has shown us
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Djalli i Tasmanise na ka treguar ne
00:27
that, not only can cancer be a contagious disease,
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se, jo vetem qe mund te jete ngjites,
00:30
but it can also threaten
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por edhe kercenues
00:32
an entire species with extinction.
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per te gjithe speciet me zhdukje.
00:36
So first of all, what is a Tasmanian devil?
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Pike se pari, cfare eshte djalli i Tasmanise?
00:40
Many of you might be familiar with Taz, the cartoon character,
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Shume nga ju mund ta njohin Taz-in, nje personazh i animuar,
00:43
the one that spins around and around and around.
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ai qe vertitet rrotul e rrotull e rotull.
00:45
But not many people know
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Por jo shume prej jush e dine
00:47
that there actually is a real animal called the Tasmanian devil,
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qe aktualisht eshte nje kafshe qe quajne Djalli i Tasmanise,
00:50
and it's the world's largest carnivorous marsupial.
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dhe qe eshte nje nga marsupialet me te medhenje mishngrenes ne bote.
00:54
A marsupial is a mammal with a pouch
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Marsupial eshte nje gjitar me nje xhep
00:56
like a kangaroo.
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si te kangurit.
00:58
The Tasmanian devil got its name
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Djalli Tasmanise e ka marre emrin
01:00
from the terrifying nocturnal scream that it makes.
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nga klithmat e frikshme qe leshon naten.
01:04
(Screaming)
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( Klithma )
01:15
(Laughter)
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( Te qeshura )
01:17
The Tasmanian devil is predominantly a scavenger,
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Djalli i Tasmanise eshte kryesisht nje ngrenes mbeturinash te ngordhura,
01:20
and it uses its powerful jaws
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dhe perdor nofullat e fuqishme
01:22
and its sharp teeth
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dhe dhembet e tij te mprehte
01:24
to chomp on the bones of rotting dead animals.
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te coptoje kockat e kafsheve te ngordhura.
01:27
[The] Tasmanian devil is found only on the island of Tasmania,
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Djalli i Tasmanise gjendet ne ishullin e Tasmanise,
01:30
which is that small island
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qe eshte nje ishull i vogel
01:32
just to the south of the mainland of Australia.
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ne jug te kontinentit Australian.
01:34
And despite their ferocious appearance,
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Dhe pervec pamjes mizore,
01:38
Tasmanian devils are actually
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djajte Tasmanise jane
01:40
quite adorable little animals.
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kafshe adhuruese.
01:43
In fact, growing up in Tasmania,
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Ne fakt, duke u rritur ne Tasmani,
01:45
it always was incredibly exciting
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eshte gjithmone emocionuese
01:47
when we got a chance to see
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kur ne patem shansin ta shohim
01:49
a Tasmanian devil in the wild.
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nje djall te Tasmanise ne nje ambjent te eger.
01:51
But the Tasmanian devil population
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Por pupullimi i djallit te Tasmanise
01:53
has been undergoing a really extremely fast decline.
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eshte duke perjetuar nje renie te shpejte.
01:57
And in fact, there's concern
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Dhe ne fakt, eshte nje shqetesim
01:59
that the species could go extinct in the wild
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qe kjo specie mund te zhduket
02:02
within 20 to 30 years.
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brenda 20 deri 30 vitesh.
02:05
And the reason for that
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Dhe arsyeja e kesaj
02:07
is the emergence of a new disease,
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eshte krijimi i nje semundje te re
02:09
a contagious cancer.
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nje kancer ngjites.
02:13
The story begins in 1996
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Historia filloi ne 1996
02:15
when a wildlife photographer took this photograph here
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kur nje fotograf profesionist more kete foto ketu
02:18
of a Tasmanian devil
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te nje djali te Tasmanise
02:20
with a large tumor on its face.
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me nje tumor te madh ne fytyren e tij.
02:22
At the time, this was thought to be a one-off.
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Ne ate kohe, u mendua qe mund te ishte dicka e karakterit natyror.
02:25
Animals, just like humans,
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Kafshet, ashtu si njerzit,
02:27
sometimes get strange tumors.
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ndonjehere mund te kene tumore te cuditshme.
02:30
However, we now believe
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Megjithate, ne tani besojme
02:32
that this is the first sighting of a new disease,
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qe kjo eshte hera e pare e nje semundje te re,
02:35
which is now an epidemic spreading through Tasmania.
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qe tani eshte perhapur epidemikisht ne Tasmani.
02:39
The disease was first sighted
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Semundja u vu re per here te pare
02:41
in the northeast of Tasmania in 1996
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ne verilindje te Tasmanise ne 1996
02:44
and has spread across Tasmania like a huge wave.
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dhe eshte perhapur permes Tasmanise si nje vale e madhe.
02:47
Now there's only a small part of the population,
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Ka vetem nje pjese te vogel te popullsise,
02:50
which remains unaffected.
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qe mbetet e pa infektuar.
02:52
This disease appears first as tumors,
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Semundja duket si nje tumor,
02:55
usually on the face or inside the mouth
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zakonisht ne fytyre ose brenda gojes
02:57
of affected Tasmanian devils.
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se djajveTasmanian te infektuar.
02:59
These tumors inevitably grow into larger tumors,
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Keto tumore ne menyre te pashmanghsme rriten ne tumore me te medhenje,
03:02
such as these ones here.
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si keto ketu.
03:04
And the next image I'm going to show
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Ne pamjen tjeter une do t'ju tregoj
03:06
is quite gruesome.
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eshte mjaft e frikshme.
03:08
But inevitably, these tumors progress
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Por ne menyre te pashmangshme, keto tumore avancojne
03:10
towards being enormous, ulcerating tumors like this one here.
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drejt zmadhimit , duke crijuar tumore si ky ketu.
03:16
This one in particular sticks in my mind,
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Pikerisht ky rri ne mendjen time,
03:18
because this is the first case of this disease
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sepse ky eshte rasti pare i semundjes
03:20
that I saw myself.
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qe une e pashe me syte e mi.
03:22
And I remember the horror of seeing this little female devil
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Dhe me kujtohet kur pashe kete djall femer
03:25
with this huge ulcerating, foul-smelling tumor
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me kete tumor kaq te madh me ere te keqe
03:27
inside her mouth
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brenda gojes se saj
03:29
that had actually cracked off her entire lower jaw.
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qe e kishte plasaritur te tere nofullen e poshtme te saj.
03:33
She hadn't eaten for days.
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Ajo nuk kishte ngrene me dite te tera.
03:36
Her guts were swimming with parasitic worms.
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Zorret e saj po notonin ne krimba parazite.
03:38
Her body was riddled with secondary tumors.
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Trupi i saj ishte mbushur me tumore sekondare.
03:41
And yet, she was feeding three little baby Tasmanian devils
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Dhe ne anen tjeter, ajo po ushqente tre te vegjlit
03:44
in her pouch.
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ne xhepin e saj .
03:47
Of course, they died along with the mother.
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Sigurisht, qe ato ngordhen me mamane e tyre.
03:50
They were too young to survive without their mother.
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Ata ishin shume te vegjel per te mbijetuar pa mamane e tyre.
03:53
In fact, in the area where she comes from,
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Ne fakt, vendi nga vjen ajo ,
03:56
more than 90 percent of the Tasmanian devil population
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me shume se 90 perqind e popullates se djallit te Tasmanise
03:59
has already died of this disease.
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tashme kane ngordhur nga e njejta semundje.
04:02
Scientists around the world
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Shkencetaret nga e gjithe bota
04:04
were intrigued by this cancer,
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jane intriguar nga ky kancer,
04:06
this infectious cancer,
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ky kancer ngjites,
04:08
that was spreading through the Tasmanian devil population.
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qe u shpernda neper popullaten e Djallit te Tasmanise.
04:11
And our minds immediately turned to cervical cancer in women,
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Dhe mendjet tona menjehere u kthyen nga kanceri cervikal i grave,
04:14
which is spread by a virus,
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qe shperdahet nga nje virus,
04:16
and to the AIDS epidemic,
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dhe nga epidemia e Sides,
04:18
which is associated with a number of different types of cancer.
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qe percillet me nje numer kanceresh te ndryshme.
04:22
All the evidence suggested that this devil cancer
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Te gjitha provat deshmojne se ky kancer i djallit
04:25
was spread by a virus.
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eshte shperndare nga nje virus.
04:28
However, we now know -- and I'll tell you right now --
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Megjithate, ne tashme e dime -- dhe do t'ju tregoj tani --
04:31
that we know that this cancer is not spread by a virus.
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se ne e dime qe ky kancer nuk shperndahet nga virusi.
04:34
In fact, the infectious agent of disease in this cancer
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Ne fakt, ky agjent infektues i semundjes ne kete kancer
04:38
is something altogether more sinister,
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eshte dicka shume e keqe,
04:40
and something that we hadn't really thought of before.
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dhe dicka qe ne nuk e kishim menduar me pare.
04:43
But in order for me to explain what that is,
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Por ne vend qe une t'ua shpjegoj cfare eshte kjo,
04:46
I need to spend just a couple of minutes
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mua me duhen disa minuta
04:48
talking more about cancer itself.
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per te folur rreth vete kancerit.
04:51
Cancer is a disease
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Kanceri eshte nje semundje
04:53
that affects millions of people around the world every year.
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qe prek miliona njerez ne bote vit per vit.
04:56
One in three people in this room
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Nje nga tre njerez ne kete dhome
04:58
will develop cancer at some stage in their lives.
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do te kete kancer ne ndonje faze te jetes se tij.
05:01
I myself had a tumor removed from my large intestine
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Une vete kam pasur tumor ne zorren e madhe te cilen ma kane hequr
05:03
when I was only 14.
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kur une isha vetem 14 vjec.
05:06
Cancer occurs
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Kanceri formohet
05:08
when a single cell in your body
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kur nje qelize e vetme ne trupin tend
05:10
acquires a set of random mutations in important genes
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peson disa ndryshime ne gjene te rendesishme
05:13
that cause that cell to start to produce
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qe shkaktojne kete qelize te filloje te prodhoje
05:16
more and more and more copies of itself.
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shume e me shume kopje te vetes.
05:20
Paradoxically, once established,
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Ne menyre paradoksale, sapo formohet,
05:23
natural selection actually favors
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perzgjedhja natyrale favorizon
05:25
the continued growth of cancer.
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rritjen e vazhdueshme te kancerit.
05:27
Natural selection is survival of the fittest.
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Perzgjedhja natyrale eshte mbijetesa e me te fortit.
05:30
And when you have a population of fast-dividing cancer cells,
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Dhe kur ke nje popullate qe ka ndarje te shpejte te qelizave kanceroze,
05:33
if one of them acquires new mutations,
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nese nje nga ato peson nje mutacion te ri,
05:35
which allow them to grow more quickly,
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qe i lejon ato te rriten me shpejt,
05:37
acquire nutrients more successfully,
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te marrin ushqimin me suskses,
05:39
invade the body,
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te pushtojne trupin,
05:41
they'll be selected for by evolution.
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ato do te perzgjidhen nga evolucioni.
05:44
That's why cancer is such a difficult disease to treat.
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Ja pse, kanceri eshte nje semundje e veshtire per t'u trajtuar.
05:48
It evolves.
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Ai evoluon.
05:50
Throw a drug at it,
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Jepi nje ilaq,
05:52
and resistant cells will grow back.
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dhe qelizat rezistuese do te rriten perseri.
05:55
An amazing fact is that,
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Nje fakt mahnites eshte qe,
05:57
given the right environment and the right nutrients,
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duke qene ne nje ambjent optimal dhe duke mare ushqimin e nevojshem,
06:00
a cancer cell has the potential
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nje qelize kanceroze ka fuqine
06:02
to go on growing forever.
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per t'u zhvilluar pergjithmone.
06:05
However cancer is constrained
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Sidoqofte kanceri eshte i detyruar
06:07
by living inside our bodies,
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te jetoje brenda trupit tone,
06:09
and its continued growth,
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dhe rritja e vazhduar etij,
06:11
its spreading through our bodies
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shperndarja ne te gjithe trupin
06:13
and eating away at our tissues,
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dhe te ushqyerit e tyre me indet tona,
06:15
leads to the death of the cancer patient
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con ne vdekjen e pacientit me kancer
06:18
and also to the death of the cancer itself.
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dhe gjithashtu ne vdekjen e vete kancerit.
06:22
So cancer could be thought of
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Keshtu qe kanceri mund te mendohet
06:24
as a strange, short-lived, self-destructive life form --
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si nje forme e gjalle, jeteshkurter, e cudtitshme --
06:29
an evolutionary dead end.
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nje vdekje evolucionare.
06:33
But that is where the Tasmanian devil cancer
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Por aty eshte ku kaceri i djallit te Tasmanise
06:35
has acquired an absolutely amazing
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ka siguruar nja adaptim evolucionar te
06:38
evolutionary adaptation.
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jashtezakonshem.
06:41
And the answer came from studying
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Dhe pergjigja ardhi nga studimi
06:43
the Tasmanian devil cancer's DNA.
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i ADN-se se djallit te Tasmanise.
06:45
This was work from many people,
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Ishte pune e bere nga shume njerez,
06:47
but I'm going to explain it through a confirmatory experiment
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por une une do t'ua shpjegoj ate permes nje eksperimenti
06:49
that I did a few years ago.
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qe une kam bere disa vite me pare.
06:51
The next slide is going to be gruesome.
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Faqja tjeter do te jete pak e frikshme.
06:54
This is Jonas.
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Ky eshte Jonas.
06:56
He's a Tasmanian devil that we found
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Ky eshte Djalli i Tasmanise qe kemi gjetur
06:59
with a large tumor on his face.
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me nje tumor te madh mbi fytyren e tij.
07:01
And being a geneticist,
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Si gjeneticiste qe jam,
07:03
I'm always interested to look at DNA and mutations.
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une jam gjithmone e interesuar per te pare ADN-ne dhe mutacionet.
07:06
So I took this opportunity
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Keshtu qe shfrytezova kete mundesi
07:08
to collect some samples from Jonas' tumor
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per te mbledhur disa mostra nga tumori i Jonasit
07:10
and also some samples from other parts of his body.
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dhe gjithashtu disa mostra nga pjeset tjera te trupit te tij.
07:13
I took these back to the lab.
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I dergova ne laborator.
07:15
I extracted DNA from them.
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Nxorra ADN-ne nga ata.
07:17
And when I looked at the sequence of the DNA,
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Dhe kur pashe renditjen e ADN-se,
07:20
and compared the sequence of Jonas' tumor
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dhe e krahasova renditjen e tumorit te Jonasit,
07:23
to that of the rest of his body,
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me ate te pjeseve tjera te trupit te tij,
07:25
I discovered that they had a completely different genetic profile.
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Zbulova qe ata kishin nje profil gjenetik krejtesosht ndryshe nga njeri-tjetri.
07:30
In fact, Jonas and his tumor
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Ne fakt, Jonas dhe tumori i tij
07:32
were as different from each other
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ishin aq te ndryshim nga njeri tjetri
07:35
as you and the person sitting next to you.
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sa ti edhe personi tjeter qe eshte ulur afer teje.
07:38
What this told us was that Jonas' tumor
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Ajo cfare pame ne ishte qe tumori Jonasit
07:41
did not arise from cells of his own body.
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nuk doli nga qelizat e trupit te tij.
07:44
In fact, more genetic profiling
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Ne fakt, profilizimet tjera gjenetike
07:47
told us that this tumor in Jonas
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na treguan qe tumori i Jonasit
07:49
actually probably first arose
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ndoshta per here te pare u rrit
07:51
from the cells of a female Tasmanian devil --
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nga qelizat e nje Djall Tasmanian femer --
07:53
and Jonas was clearly a male.
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dhe Jonasi ishte mashkull.
07:55
So how come
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Pra si eshte e mundur
07:57
a tumor that arose from the cells of another individual
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qe nje tumor qe u rrit nga qeliza e nje kafshe tjeter
08:00
is growing on Jonas' face?
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po rritej ne fytyrene Jonasit ?
08:03
Well the next breakthrough
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Zbulimi tjeter i madh
08:05
came from studying hundreds of Tasmanian devil cancers
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erdhi nga studimi i qindra kancereve te Djallit te Tasmanise
08:08
from all around Tasmania.
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nga e gjithe Tasmania.
08:10
We found that all of these cancers
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Ne zbuluam qe te gjithe keto kancere
08:12
shared the same DNA.
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kishin te njejten ADN.
08:14
Think about that for a minute.
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Mendoni nje minute.
08:16
That means that all of these cancers
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Kjo do te thote qe te gjithe keto kancere
08:18
actually are the same cancer
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aktualisht jane i njejti kancer
08:20
that arose once from one individual devil,
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qe u zhvillua nga nje djall i vetem ,
08:23
that have broken free of that first devil's body
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dhe pastaj leshoi trupin e djallit te pare
08:26
and spread through the entire Tasmanian devil population.
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dhe u shpernda ne gjithe popullaten e djajve te Tasmanise.
08:30
But how can a cancer spread in a population?
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Por si eshte e mundur qe nje kancer te shperdahet ne nje popullate?
08:33
Well the final piece of the puzzle came
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Pjesa e fundit e ketij misteri erdhi
08:35
when we remember how devils behave when they meet each other in the wild.
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kur menduam se si djajt sillen kur takohen me njeri tjetrin ne xhungel .
08:38
They tend to bite each other,
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Ata kafshojne njeri tjetrin,
08:40
often quite ferociously and usually on the face.
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shpesh shume egersisht dhe zakonisht ne fytyre.
08:43
We think that cancer cells
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Ne mendojme qe qelizat kanceroze
08:46
actually come off the tumor, get into the saliva.
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aktualisht dalin nga tumori dhe futen me peshtyme.
08:49
When the devil bites another devil,
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Kur nje djall e kafshon tjetrin,
08:51
it actually physically implants living cancer cells into the next devil,
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ai fizikisht i transmeton qelizat kanceroze,
08:54
so the tumor continues to grow.
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keshtu qe tumori vazhdon te rritet.
08:56
So this Tasmanian devil cancer
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Keshtu kanceri i djallit te Tasmanise
08:58
is perhaps the ultimate cancer.
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eshte ndoshta kanceri me i rrezikshem.
09:00
It's not constrained by living within the body that gave rise to it.
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Nuk eshte i detyruar qe te rriten ne nje trup ku ai eshte rritur me te.
09:03
It spreads through the population,
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Ai shperdahet premes popullates,
09:05
has mutations that allow it to evade the immune system,
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ka mutacione qe e lejon ate te pushtoje sistemin imun,
09:08
and it's the only cancer that we know of
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dhe eshte i vetmi kancer qe ne njohim
09:10
that's threatening an entire species with extinction.
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qe kercenon te gjithe speciet me zhdukje .
09:14
But if this can happen in Tasmanian devils,
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Por nese kjo ndodh me Djallin e Tasmanise,
09:17
why hasn't it happened in other animals
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pse nuk ka ndodhur me kafshet e tjera
09:19
or even humans?
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ose me njerzit?
09:21
Well the answer is, it has.
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Pergjigia eshte, qe ka ndodhur.
09:25
This is Kimbo.
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Ky eshte Kimbo.
09:27
He's a dog that belongs to a family in Mombasa in Kenya.
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Ai eshte nje qen qe i perket familjes Mombasa ne Kenya.
09:31
Last year, his owner noticed some blood
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Vitin qe kaloi, i zoti i tij verejti ca gjak
09:34
trickling from his genital region.
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qe rridhte nga pjesa e gjenitaleve.
09:37
She took him to the vet
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Ajo e coi tek veterinari
09:39
and the vet discovered something quite disgusting.
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dhe ai zbuloi dicka shume te tmerrshme.
09:42
And if you're squeamish, please look away now.
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Dhe nese jeni te dobet, ju ltem mos shikoni.
09:45
He discovered this,
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Ai zbuloi kete,
09:47
a huge bleeding tumor
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nje tumor qe rridhte gjak
09:49
at the base of Kimbo's penis.
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ne fillin e penisit te Kimbos.
09:53
The vet diagnosed this as transmissible venereal tumor,
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Ai e diagnostifikoi kete si nje tumor veneral te trasmetueshem,
09:56
a sexually transmitted cancer
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nje kancer i trasmetueshem permes seksit
09:59
that affects dogs.
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qe prek qente.
10:01
And just as the Tasmanian devil cancer is contagious
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Dhe si kanceri i djallit te tasmanise qe eshte ngjites
10:04
through the spread of living cancer cells,
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permes shperndarjes se qelizave,
10:06
so is this dog cancer.
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po edhe keshtu eshte kanceri i qenve.
10:08
But this dog cancer is quite remarkable,
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Por ky kancer qensh eshte mjaft interesant,
10:10
because it spread all around the world.
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sepse ai shperdahet ne te gjithe boten.
10:12
And in fact, these same cells
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Dhe ne fakt, kete qeliza te njejta
10:14
that are affecting Kimbo here
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qe kane prekur Kimbon ketu
10:17
are also found affecting dogs
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jane gjetur qe kane prekur edhe qene
10:19
in New York City,
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te tjere ne New York,
10:21
in mountain villages in the Himalayas
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ne fshtara malore te Himalajas
10:23
and in Outback Australia.
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dhe deri ne Australi.
10:26
We also believe this cancer might be very old.
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Ne gjithashtu besojme qe kanceri mund te jete shume i vjeter.
10:28
In fact, genetic profiling tells
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Ne fakt, profili gjenetik na tregon
10:30
that it may be tens of thousands of years old,
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qe mund te jete dhjetera mijera vjet i vjeter,
10:33
which means that this cancer
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qe do te thote qe ky kancer
10:35
may have first arisen
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mund ne fillim te jete zhvilluar
10:37
from the cells of a wolf
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nga qelizat e nje ujku
10:39
that lived alongside the Neanderthals.
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qe ka jetuar ne kohen e Neandertaleve.
10:42
This cancer is remarkable.
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Kanceri eshte i jashtezakonshem.
10:44
It's the oldest mammalian-derived life form that we know of.
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Eshte forma me e vjeter e gjalle qe del nga gjitaret qe ne e njohim.
10:48
It's a living relic
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Eshte nje relike e gjalle
10:50
of the distant past.
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nga nje e kaluar e larget.
10:54
So we've seen that this can happen in animals.
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Keshtu qe ne pame qe kjo mund te ndodhi tek kafshet.
10:56
Could cancers be contagious between people?
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A mund te jete kanceri ngjites edhe tek njerzit?
11:01
Well this is a question
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Kjo eshte nje pyetje
11:03
which fascinated Chester Southam,
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qe ka magjepsur Chester Southam,
11:05
a cancer doctor in the 1950s.
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nje doktor kanceri ne vitet e 1950-ta.
11:08
Ad he decided to put this to the test
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Ai vendosi ta testoje kete
11:11
by actually deliberately inoculating people
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duke vaksinuar njerezit me kancer
11:14
with cancer from somebody else.
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te dikujt tjeter.
11:17
And this is a photograph of Dr. Southam in 1957
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Dhe kjo eshtenje fotografi e Dr. Southam ne 1957
11:21
injecting cancer into a volunteer,
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duke injektuar kancerin tek nje vullnetar,
11:24
who in this case was an inmate
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qe ne kete rast ishte i burgosur
11:26
in Ohio State Penitentiary.
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ne Penitenciarin e Ohajos.
11:30
Most of the people that Dr. Southam injected
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Shumica e njerezve qe Dr. Southam injektoi
11:32
did not go on to develop cancer
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nuk zhvilluan kancerin
11:34
from the injected cells.
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nga qelizat e injektuara.
11:36
But a small number of them did,
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Por nje numer i vogel i tyre po,
11:38
and they were mostly people who were otherwise ill --
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dhe keta ishin njerez qe ishin te semure --
11:41
whose immune systems were probably compromised.
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sistemi imun i te cileve ishte kompromituar.
11:46
What this tells us,
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Cfare na tregon kjo,
11:48
ethical issues aside,
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duke lene anash ceshjet etike,
11:50
is that ...
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eshte se ....
11:52
(Laughter)
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( Te qeshura )
11:54
it's probably extremely rare
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eshte shume e rralle
11:57
for cancers to be transferred between people.
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qe kanceret te transferohen permes njerezve.
12:01
However, under some circumstances,
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Megjithate, ne disa rethana,
12:03
it can happen.
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mund te ndodhi.
12:06
And I think that this is something
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Dhe une mendoj qe kjo eshte dicka
12:08
that oncologists and epidemiologists
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qe onkologjistet dhe epidomiologjistet
12:10
should be aware of in the future.
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duke ta kene parasysh ne te ardhmen.
12:13
So just finally,
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Dhe per fund,
12:15
cancer is an inevitable outcome
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kanceri eshte nje rezultat i pa shmangshem
12:17
of the ability of our cells
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i aftesise se qelizave tona
12:19
to divide
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per t'u ndare
12:21
and to adapt to their environments.
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dhe per t'iu adaptuar mjedisit te tyre.
12:24
But that does not mean that we should give up hope
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Por kjo nuk do te thote qe ne nuk duhet te heqim dore nga shpresa
12:27
in the fight against cancer.
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ne luften kunder kancerit.
12:29
In fact, I believe, given more knowledge
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Ne fakt, une besoj, duke pasur njohurite
12:31
of the complex evolutionary processes that drive cancer's growth,
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rreth proceseve komplekse evolucionare qe shkaktojne rritjen e kancerit,
12:34
we can defeat cancer.
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ne mund ta mundim ate.
12:37
My personal aim
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Qellimi im personal
12:39
is to defeat the Tasmanian devil cancer.
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eshte te mposht kancerin e djallit te Tasmanise.
12:43
Let's prevent the Tasmanian devil
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Le te parandalojme Djallin e tasmanise
12:45
from being the first animal
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per te qene e para kafshe
12:47
to go extinct from cancer.
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qe mund te zhduket nga kanceri.
12:49
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
12:51
(Applause)
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( Duatrokitje )
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Elizabeth Murchison - Cancer researcherElizabeth Murchison studies a mysterious (and contagious) cancer that threatens to wipe out Tasmanian devils.
Why you should listen
Elizabeth Murchison grew up in Tasmania, the island home of the small, aggressive marsupial known as the Tasmanian devil. In the mid-'90s, the devils were beset with a terrible new disease -- a contagious facial cancer, spread by biting, that killed the animals just as they reached breeding age. By 2008, half the devil population of Australia had contracted the cancer and died. And as Murchison says: "I didn’t want to sit back and let the devils disappear.”
Leading an international team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, she worked to understand why this cancer was so virulent -- with the goal of saving the Taz, as it is called, but also of understanding how a contagious cancer works. Analyzing gene and microRNA activity in 25 different facial tumors and in healthy tissue, the team found that cancers from animals across Tasmania were identical, and that the cancer stems from Schwann cells, which normally insulate nerve fibers.
Now a Research Fellow in Medical Sciences at King's College, Cambridge, Murchison is using high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies to investigate the genetics and evolution of this disease, one of only three known cancers that spread contagiously.
She says: "This is why cancer is such a difficult disease to treat: It evolves."
Elizabeth Murchison | Speaker | TED.com