A man in the Northeastern state of Massachusetts has regained his voice after a rare operation.美国东北部马萨诸塞州的一名男子在接受罕见手术后恢复了声音。
Marty Kedian received a total transplant of his larynx, the organ responsible for speech, commonly called the "voice box".
马蒂·凯迪安接受了全喉移植手术，喉是负责说话的器官，通常被称为“音箱”。
Transplants of the larynx are very unusual and normally are not available to people with active cancer.
喉移植非常罕见，通常不适合患有恶性肿瘤的人。
Kedian is only the third person in the United States to receive a total larynx transplant.
凯迪安是美国第三位接受全喉移植的人。
Doctors removed Kedian's cancerous larynx and replaced it with a donated one.
医生切除了凯迪安癌变的喉部，并换上了一个捐赠的喉部。
Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona offered Kedian the transplant as part of a new study.
作为新研究的一部分，亚利桑那州梅奥诊所的外科医生为凯迪安安排了移植手术。
The study, known as a clinical trial, aims to open the operation to more patients, including some with cancer, the most common way to lose a larynx.
这项被称为临床试验的研究旨在向更多患者开放该手术，包括一些癌症患者，癌症是失去喉咙的最常见方式。
"People need to keep their voice," 59-year-old Kedian told the Associated Press four months after the transplant operation.
“人们需要保留住自己的声音，”59岁的凯迪安在该移植手术四个月后告诉美联社。
His voice sounded rough, but he was able to keep up a discussion for an hour.
他的声音听起来粗哑，但他能坚持讨论一个小时。
He added, "I want people to know this can be done."
他补充说：“我希望人们知道这是可以做到的。”
Kedian became emotional when describing the first time he phoned his 82-year-old mother after the surgery,
在描述手术后第一次给82岁的母亲打电话这件事时，科迪安情绪激动，
"and she could hear me… That was important to me, to talk to my mother."
“她能听到我说话……能和我妈妈说话对我来说很重要。”
The study is small - just nine more people will take part.
这项研究规模很小——只会再有9人参与。
But it permits scientists to learn more about these complex transplants.
但它让科学家们对这些复杂的移植有更多的了解。
One day, doctors might offer these operations to more people who cannot breathe, swallow or speak on their own because of a damaged or surgically removed larynx.
有一天，医生可能会为更多由于喉部受损或手术切除喉部而无法自主呼吸、吞咽或说话的人安排这些手术。
Dr. David Lott is chair of Head and Neck Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
大卫·洛特医生是亚利桑那州梅奥诊所的头颈外科主任。
He said he started the study because my patients tell me, 'Yeah, I may be alive but I'm not really living.'
他说自己开始这项研究是因为他的病人告诉他，‘是的，我可能还活着，但我并不是真的活着。’
Lott's team reported early results of the surgery recently in the publication Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
洛特的团队最近在《梅奥诊所学报》期刊上报告了这次手术的早期结果。
The larynx might be best known as the voice box.
喉可能以“人类的音箱”而最为人所知。
But the larynx is also important for breathing and swallowing.
但喉对于呼吸和吞咽也很重要。
Muscular tissue flaps called vocal cords open to let air into the lungs, close to prevent food or drink from going the wrong way and move when air pushes past them to produce speech.
The first two U.S. larynx transplants took place at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998 and the University of California, Davis, in 2010.
美国最早的两例喉移植手术分别于1998年在克利夫兰诊所和2010年在加州大学戴维斯分校进行。
The patients who received them had lost their voices to injuries.
接受喉移植治疗的患者因受伤而失声。
But cancer is the biggest reason for voice loss.
但癌症是导致失声的最大原因。
The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 12,600 people will be found to have some form of laryngeal cancer this year.
美国癌症协会估计，今年将有超过12600人被发现患有某种形式的喉癌。
While today many undergo voice-preserving treatment, thousands of people have had their larynx completely removed.
虽然如今许多人接受了声音保留治疗，但仍有数千人的喉部被完全切除。
These people often breathe through what is called a tracheostomy tube in their neck.
这些人通常通过颈部所谓的气切管呼吸。
They can struggle to communicate.
他们可能很难与人沟通。
Although the earlier U.S. recipients were able to reach near normal speech, doctors have not fully accepted these transplants.
虽然早期的美国喉移植手术接受者能够达到接近正常的说话能力，但医生们并没有完全接受这些喉移植手术。
That is partly because people can survive without a larynx.
部分原因是人们没有喉也能生存。
At the same time, special drugs that limit the immune system could create new or reappearing tumors.
与此同时，限制免疫系统的特殊药物可能会产生新的肿瘤或使肿瘤复发。
"We want to be able to push those boundaries but do it as safely and ethically as we can," Lott said.
洛特说：“我们希望能够突破这些界限，但要尽可能安全和合乎道德地做到这一点。”
Head-and-neck specialists say the Mayo trial is important to helping larynx transplants become a choice.
头颈部专家说，梅奥诊所的这一试验对于帮助喉移植成为一种治疗选择很重要。
"It isn't a 'one-off', but an opportunity to finally learn from one patient before operating on the next," said Dr. Marshall Strome, who led the 1998 transplant in Cleveland.
