The health ministry is preparing a national database of registered cancer patients that will include their treatments and posttreatment condition in a bid to fight cancer, the No. 1 killer in Japan, according to ministry sources.
Region-specific data on cancer patient distribution, death rates, causes and treatment results will also be collected for future patients to select the hospital at which they wish to be cared for, the sources said.
As of last April, 34 prefectural governments and the Hiroshima Municipal Government had their own databases of registered cancer patients based on information from local medical institutions.
But registration methods have not been standardized and desired data is sometimes lacking in the regional databases because, for instance, there are too many items that need to be filled out.
A study group of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to work out a standardized registration format and a data analysis method by the spring, the sources said.
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