Lifestyle-related diseases now cause more deaths
in Japan than infectious diseases, and cancer has been the leading
cause of death in Japan since 1981.
Cancer is the most serious disease facing humanity today, and finding
effective treatments for cancer is becoming an increasingly important
challenge all over the world.
Progress in basic research over the past 15 years has demonstrated
that genomic abnormalities cause cancer and that cancer can be
prevented by making appropriate lifestyle changes.
Cancer therapies have also progressed over time due to advances
in technologies associated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation
therapy, and the number of people being treated by chemotherapy
on an outpatient basis has increased remarkably.
However, the number of deaths caused by cancer and cancer mortality
are still on the rise. More than 320,000 people died of cancer
in Japan in 2004, accounting for 31.1% of all deaths. |
