Radioisotope Therapy of Japan: Future Perspective and Recommendations

In Japan, because of the rapid increase in the number of thyroid cancer patients and the recent severe shortage of radioisotope therapy wards, the prolonged waiting time for the admission to the radioisotope therapy wards has become a social problem. This situation is against one of the main purposes of the Cancer Control Promotion Plan of our nation, which is advocating an equal accessibility of medical care for the Japanese citizens. In 2015, diet discussions about the problems of radioisotope therapy took place and the prime minister stated that the promotion of radioisotope therapy is one of the most important issues in Japan, therefore further promotion of research and development is anticipated in this field. In this article, we have summarized the problems during radioisotope therapy, and have added our recommendations in the social and medical realizable countermeasures in future, according to the deep considerations of medical economy in Japan, an assumption of disease prevalence of thyroid cancer in the future, and the situations of foreign countries.