Foster Plans for Cancer Specialists selected by MEXT in Japan

Cancer, being the most common cause of death, develops in about 30% of Japanese people sometime during their lifetime. In order to confront this problem and improve Japan's standard of cancer treatment, it is essential to foster specialists in radiation therapy, chemotherapy and palliative management as well as oncology specialist nurses and pharmacists, fields in which our human resources are extremely limited. The Foster Plan for Cancer Specialists which medical schools in Japan play a key role in, receives the cooperation of other related universities and colleges, and was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as an anti-cancer project in Japan. In 2007, 18 programs from the whole country have been selected. These plans call for specialists in the treatment of cancer to be educated mainly at the graduate school level, with extensive cooperation among the universities that have signed up for the systematic fostering plans, as well as the hospitals which are designated as partner facilities, in the prefectures in which the universities are located. This wide-range, professional development system is beyond the framework of the conventional graduate school education. It requires a system for university credit transfer, hospital-university collaboration, an internet schooling system, and the promotion in enrollment of working personnel. The regional framework is expected to include all universities, university hospitals, center hospitals for cancer treatment, local governments and professional training organizations in the prefectures for promoting its clinical tests and cancer registrations.