研究：吸菸可永久改變基因

吸菸有害身體健康已經人盡皆知，近些年已經有越來越多的人加入戒菸行列。大多數人都覺得，戒菸了總沒事兒了吧？最新研究結果顯示，真相併非如此：研究顯示，吸菸導致的基因突變會伴隨你一生。

Smoking leaves an "archaeologicAl record" of the hundreds of DNA mutations it causes, scientists have discovered.
科學家研究發現，吸菸會導致DNA突變，給人留下數百種基因突變的“永久記錄”。

Having sequenced thousands of tumour genomes, they found a 20-a-day smoker would rack up an average of 150 mutations in every lung cell each year.
在對數千個腫瘤基因組進行測序後，科學家發現每天吸菸20支的人每年每個肺細胞累積平均有150個基因突變。

The changes are permanent, and persist even if someone gives up smoking.
這些突變是永久且持續的，即使吸菸者戒菸也不可逆。

Researchers say analysing tumour DNA may help explain the underlying causes of other cancers.
研究人員說，分析腫瘤DNA能幫助解釋其他癌症的深層原因。

Pamela Pugh, 69, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. She started smoking aged 17 and quit in her early 50s.
69歲的帕梅拉-皮尤2013年被診斷患有肺癌。她自17歲開始吸菸，近50歲時戒菸。

But she said: "Even though I gave up many years ago, the effects of smoking caught up with me.
但她說：“儘管我很多年前就戒菸了，但吸菸的影響一直在。”

"Had I known as a teenager that smoking caused mutations which would stay with me for life then I would never had started".
“如果年輕時我知道吸菸導致的基因突變一生都會跟隨着我，那麼我絕不會開始吸菸。”

The study, in the journal Science, was carried out by an international group, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
這項研究發表在《科學》期刊上，由一個國際研究組研究得出，包括英國劍橋郡的基金會桑格研究院，以及美國新墨西哥州的洛斯阿拉莫斯國家實驗室。

The analysis shows a direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime and the number of mutations in tumour DNA.
研究顯示，人一生中吸菸的總數量和腫瘤DNA變異的數量之間存在直接關係。

The authors found that, on average, smoking a packet of cigarettes a day led to:
研究作者發現，平均來講，每天吸一包煙會導致：

150 mutations in each lung cell every year
每年每個肺部細胞中有150個基因突變。

97 in the larynx or voice box
喉部或喉頭97個突變

23 in the mouth
口腔部位23個突變

18 in the bladder
膀胱18個突變

six in the liver
肝臟6個突變

Joint lead author Prof Sir Mike Stratton, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "The more mutations there are, the higher the chance that these will occur in the key genes that we call cancer genes, which convert a normal cell into a cancer cell."
研究報告的合作主創者、來自基金會桑格研究院的邁克-斯特拉頓教授說：“突變越多，關鍵基因，也就是我們所說的癌症基因發生突變的機率也就越大，這會將正常細胞轉變爲癌細胞。”

There are 35,000 deaths a year in the UK from lung cancer, and it is estimated that nine out of 10 cases are preventable.
英國每年有3.5萬人死於癌症，據估計其中九成可以預防。