A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
莫德纳和默沙东公布个体化癌症疫苗结果
Personalized Melanoma Vaccine Cuts Recurrence Risk
About this story
Moderna and Merck report a personalized mRNA vaccine plus an existing cancer drug delayed melanoma recurrence and cut distant spread. HSK 5-6 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 5-6 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 参加、降低、获得 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
On August 19, Moderna and Merck announced an important result: a personalized mRNA vaccine used with an existing cancer drug kept high-risk melanoma from recurring for longer.
The combined treatment also lowered the risk of distant metastasis.
The final-stage trial included 1,137 patients.
All patients had surgery first, after which researchers divided them into two groups.
One group received the existing cancer drug; the other received that drug plus a personalized vaccine.
The central point is that each vaccine begins with the patient’s own tumor.
The team reads mutations in the tumor and looks for targets found only in cancer cells.
It then makes an mRNA vaccine carrying information about those targets for that patient.
Human cells read the information and help the immune system learn to recognize those targets.
If the immune system later encounters matching cancer cells, it can attack more quickly.
The existing cancer drug also helps the immune system work.
It removes a block that cancer cells place on T cells, making it easier for T cells to attack.
The vaccine is used after surgery as an adjuvant treatment.
Its aim is to find and remove small numbers of cancer cells before recurrence.
This is the first personalized cancer vaccine to meet its main goal in a large randomized trial.
However, only preliminary results have been released.
The companies have not released the full effect size, mature overall-survival data, quality-of-life data, or complete safety information.
The vaccine has not received regulatory approval.
The complete data must next be examined at a medical meeting and by regulators.
If confirmed, cancer drugs could move from mass-producing one medicine toward making a different treatment for each patient.
The practical test is whether sequencing, manufacturing, and hospital delivery can fit the window after surgery.
Which problem should personalized treatment solve first: speed or price?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 3. 这项最后阶段试验有一千一百三十七名患者参加。
HSK 3. 联合治疗也降低了癌症向身体远处转移的风险。
HSK 3. 疫苗也还没有获得监管机构批准。
HSK 3. 完整数据要接受医学会议和监管机构的检查。
HSK 3. 个体化治疗先要解决速度，还是价格？
HSK 4. 这条新闻的核心，是每支疫苗都从患者自己的肿瘤开始制作。
HSK 4. 这支疫苗给手术后的病人使用，属于辅助治疗。
HSK 4. 两家公司还没有发布完整效果大小、长期生存数据……
个体化 mRNA 疫苗与现有癌症药一起使用。
团队读取肿瘤里的突变，寻找只在癌细胞中出现的目标。
联合治疗也降低了癌症向身体远处转移的风险。
让高风险黑色素瘤患者更久没有复发。
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法与……一起
Together with. The result is for the vaccine used alongside an existing cancer drug, not the vaccine alone.
个体化 mRNA 疫苗与现有癌症药一起使用
还没有
Still has not. The companies have not released full data, and the vaccine is not approved yet.
两家公司还没有发布完整效果大小、长期生存数据、生活质量数据和全部副作用资料。
疫苗也还没有获得监管机构批准。
如果
If. Only if the result holds would cancer drugs move from one product for everyone to a different plan for each patient.
如果结果确认，癌症药物可能从大批生产同一种药，走向为每名患者制作不同方案。
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
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