在与一种致命疾病作斗争时，这位医生找到了自己的疗法

While battling a deadly disease, this doctor found his own cure

在与一种致命疾病作斗争时，这位医生找到了自己的疗法

When David Fajgenbaum was in medical school, he was diagnosed with a rare and potentially deadly disease of the lymph nodes. There were very few treatments available and no cure. So, he had to take matters into his own hands.

当大卫·法吉根鲍姆在医学院读书时，他被诊断出患有一种罕见的、潜在致命的淋巴结疾病。治疗方法很少，也没有治愈方法。所以，他不得不自己动手。

“There were no promising leads, no drugs in development, and very little research being done,” he says.

他说：“当时没有任何有希望的线索，也没有开发药物，而且几乎没有做什么研究。”

Over 3 1/2 years, Fajgenbaum worked directly with various specialists, using his own medical knowledge to find an effective treatment. He details his dramatic journey in the new memoir, “Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action” (Ballantine, out Tuesday).

在3年半的时间里，法吉根鲍姆直接与各种专家合作，利用自己的医学知识寻找有效的治疗方法。他在新的回忆录《追寻我的治愈之道：医生将希望转化为行动》中详细描述了自己戏剧性的旅程。

“I was studying everything I could find, searching for a drug that could help save my life,” he says.

他说:“我研究我能找到的一切，寻找一种可以拯救我生命的药物。”

In 2010, Fajgenbaum was a strapping 25-year-old, third-year med student at the University of Pennsylvania and a former college football player when he suddenly fell ill.

2010年，法吉根鲍姆是宾夕法尼亚大学的一名25岁的医学三年级学生，曾是一名大学生足球运动员，然而却突然病倒了。

“I took a school exam and then walked myself to the ER,” Fajgenbaum, now 34 and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, tells The Post. “They told me my kidneys, liver, and bone marrow were shutting down. My immune system was attacking my vital organs.”

现年34岁、宾夕法尼亚大学医学助理教授法吉根鲍姆，在接受《邮报》采访时说：“我参加了一次学校考试，然后走到急诊室。他们告诉我，我的肾脏、肝脏和骨髓都在衰竭。我的免疫系统正在攻击我的重要器官。”

They couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong with him, although they suspected it was lymphoma. He spent seven weeks in the hospital, being treated with steroids.

虽然医生怀疑是淋巴瘤，但他们也不太清楚他到底出了什么问题。他在医院住了7周，接受类固醇治疗。

Then, four weeks after being released, he relapsed and ended up back in the hospital. It was then that he found he had idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, a rare and potentially deadly illness that only 5,000 people in the US are diagnosed with each year. Doctors tried the one drug used to treat it, but it proved ineffective.

然后，在出院四周后，他又复发了，最终回到了医院。就在那时，他发现自己患上了特发性多中心卡斯特曼病，这是一种罕见且潜在致命的疾病，美国每年只有5000人被诊断出患有这种疾病。医生尝试了一种治疗这种疾病的药物，但结果证明无效。

“I kept getting more and more sick, and they told my friends and family to say their goodbyes,” says Fajgenbaum, who was given his last rites.

“我病得越来越重，他们告诉我的朋友和家人，是时候说再见了。”法根鲍姆说，他接受了最后的仪式。

Eventually, chemotherapy proved somewhat effective, and he was released from the hospital, only to relapse three more times in the years that followed. Doctors eventually told him his body couldn’t handle any more chemo.

最终，化疗证明有一定疗效，他出院后，在随后的几年里又复发了三次。医生最终告诉他，他的身体再也不能接受化疗了。

With his treatment options running out, Fajgenbaum obsessively researched ways he might save himself. He wondered if a drug called Sirolimus, approved by the FDA to prevent organ rejection in kidney-transplant patients might work for him.

随着他的治疗选择越来越少，法根鲍姆着迷地研究他可能拯救自己的方法。他想知道一种名为西罗莫司(Sirolimus)的药物是否对他有效。西罗莫司是美国食品和药物管理局(FDA)批准的，用于预防肾移植患者的器官排斥反应。

“Certain signals in my samples … made me think this drug that suppresses the immune system, so it doesn’t attack and reject the kidney, would work,” Fajgenbaum says. “My communication lines were going crazy, and this drug inhibits [them]. But it had never been used for Castleman.”

Fajgenbaum说：“我的样本中的某些信号……让我认为这种抑制免疫系统的药物会起作用，所以它不会攻击和排斥肾脏。”“我的通讯线路快疯了，这种药抑制了(他们)。但它从来没有被卡斯特勒曼使用过。”

Fajgenbaum successfully lobbied his doctors to be his own test subject and started on the drug in February 2014. He hasn’t had a relapse since, and, through his nonprofit, the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, he’s conducting a clinical trial to see how the drug might work for others.

Fajgenbaum成功地说服他的医生成为他自己的试验对象，并于2014年2月开始使用这种药物。从那以后，他再也没有复发过，通过他的非营利性组织卡斯勒曼疾病合作网络(Castleman Disease Collaborative Network)，他正在进行一项临床试验，看看这种药物如何对其他人有效。

In 2014, he married his college sweetheart, and the couple now has a 1-year-old daughter.

2014年，他和大学时代的恋人结婚，现在他们有一个一岁的女儿。

“I feel great,” he says. “I’m back to my old self.”

“我感觉很好，”他说。“我又回到了原来的自己。”