醫學界新進展：絕症紅斑狼瘡或許將能被治療

Lupus is a potentially fatal autoimmune disorder that impacts roughly 5 million people worldwide, and yet it still has no known cause or cure.
紅斑狼瘡是一種潛在的致命自身免疫疾病，世界上大約有500萬人患有這種疾病，但目前病因未知，尚無治療方法。
Today, most treatments come with a whole bunch of adverse side effects, and given how little we know, finding new avenues for medicine has proved extremely difficult.
今天，大多數療法都伴隨着很多有害的副作用。並且鑑於我們的認識不深，找到新的醫學手段十分困難。
In the past six decades, only one drug for lupus has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Association and it's still unavailable to many. Now, an international three-year clinical trial offers the first real hope for patients in half a century.
過去的六十年間，只有一種治療紅斑狼瘡的藥物得到美國食品藥品監督管理局（FDA）的批准，並且大部分人難以獲取這種藥。現在，一項爲時三年的國際臨牀試驗讓病人看到了半個世紀以來第一絲真正的希望。
The Phase 3 trial, called TULIP-2, tested a drug called anifrolumab on a randomised selection of 180 people with lupus, giving them 300 mg every four weeks for 48 weeks.
這項3期試驗叫做TULIP-2，隨機選取180名紅斑狼瘡患者，測試一種叫做anirolumab的藥物，讓他們每4周服用300毫克藥物，持續48周。
Compared to the placebo, which was given to a further 182 participants who also had lupus, the authors say anifrolumab produced a statistically significant and clinically-meaningful reduction in the disease.
另外182名紅斑狼瘡患者則服用安慰劑。作者說與安慰劑相比，anifrolumab在統計學上顯著降低了紅斑狼瘡疾病活動度，具有重大臨牀意義。
After 52 weeks, not only only did this drug reduce autoimmune activity in the relevant organs of many of the treated patients, it also reduced the rate of flare-ups - which include fever, painful joints, fatigue and rashes - and lessened the need for steroids.
52周後，這種藥物不僅減少了患者相關器官的自身免疫活動，還減少了新症狀的爆發，包括髮燒、關節疼痛、疲勞和皮疹等，減少了患者對類固醇的使用需求。
"There is now a strong body of evidence demonstrating the benefit of anifrolumab, and we look forward to bringing this potential new medicine to patients with systemic lupus erythematosus as soon as possible," says Mene Pangalos, the executive vice president of BioPharmaceutical R&D.
梅內·潘加洛斯，R&D生物製藥的執行副總裁說，“現在有很多強有力的證據證明了anifrolumab的療效，我們期待儘快將這種潛在的新藥帶給系統性紅斑狼瘡患者。”