Status of Japanese radiation oncology

The Japanese status and structure of radiation oncology are reported on the basis of a recent Japanese official survey database compiled by JASTRO.

This report presents the status of human resources and equipment in regard to radiation therapy, and comprehensive QA of radiation therapy in Japan, mostly based on the database of the JASTRO survey of 2001 status.

About 13,000 patients are treated with radiation therapy per year, the leading sites of which were lung, breast, head and neck, prostate, esophagus, and uterus, in that order. There were about 700 radiation therapy institutions in Japan, two-thirds of which consisted of university and public institutions. Approximately, 1,000 full-time medical doctors, including 700 radiation oncologists, 1,500 technologists, and 70 medical physicists were working with approximately 700 linacs, 25 microtrons, 55 telecobalts, 200 RALSs (Co-60, 95; Ir-192, 93), and 33 gamma knives with various radiation treatment planning systems. Recently, 160 stereotactic radiotherapy, 10 cyber knives, and 10 IMRT units started operating in Japan.

One of the main problems in Japanese radiation oncology is the shortage of human resources, including radiation oncologists and medial physicists. Poor awareness of radiation oncology among the public and ignorance of the necessity and importance of medical physicists in the medical field tends to adversely affect QA/QC of recent high-technology radiation therapy.