Gov't releases plan to cut cancer death rate by 20%

The government on Friday released a basic plan to combat cancer, featuring measure to reduce the cancer death rate by 20 percent in the next 10 years for people under 75.

Based on the plan, each prefecture will be required to draft their own plan to fight cancer by next spring that takes into account regional differences.

The plan was approved based on a cancer-fighting law put into force in April. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry made the draft but the panel that debated it included cancer patients and their families, in addition to doctors and other experts.

Besides reducing cancer deaths, the plan sets a goal of "reducing the pain of the patients and families as well as maintaining and improving their quality of life."

It also calls for focusing on several areas which require more efforts in the nation, such as promoting radiation and chemical treatment, and fostering such specialists, and conducting palliative care on patients from the early treatment stage.

As numerical targets, the plan includes having all doctors working on cancer treatment acquire the basic knowledge of palliative care within 10 years. It also calls for raising the percentage of people screened for breast and colon cancers to 50 percent or more in five years, in addition to reducing the percentage of smokers among people under 20 to 0 percent in three years.

source : news.yahoo.com