S'pore can play clinical research role

Top Japanese cancer doctor is impressed by S'pore's high-quality care

Singapore has an important role to play in the areas of clinical trial and data collection for an Asian context, said Japan's top cancer surgeon Dr Nagahiro Saijo. 

Dr Saijo, 65, was at Gleneagles Hospital in November to present a lunchtime lecture to fellow oncologists as part of Parkway Cancer Centre's Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Series. In a separate interview, he said: "In Singapore, the number of patients is small but the quality of cancer care and clinical trials is high. Studies can be done within small patient groups and the result will be exciting. They can be used for further clinical try-outs."

Singapore can take a leaf out of Japan's book.

According to Dr Saijo, Japan had no ready system of medical oncology a decade ago. Palliative cancer care there was absent and most patients were in-patients, staying in a hospital for 45 to 50 days at a stretch.  

"Hospitals had no specialty to treat cancer and doctors who could treat cancer were also not distributed to hospitals all over Japan. Information was not transparent," he said. 

Cancer was a term the Japanese reacted adversely to, and even the inclusion of the word "cancer" in the names of clinics was a taboo.

"It was a great misconception. When patients were informed that they had cancer, the psychological damage was very strong," Dr Saijo said.

Japan, however, has been playing catch up – and fast.

In 2003, the Japanese government launched its third comprehensive 10-year cancer control plan as part of its continuous effort to raise medical oncology standards in all 47 prefectures, bridge communication among hospitals and collect cancer data across Japan.

During that time, Dr Saijo established the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology as a community that doctors could turn to for knowledge.

Since 2002, the society's membership has expanded from an initial 600 to the current 73,000, he said. 

In 2006, it set up a certification test and has since certified 205 oncologists. It also headhunts about 60 outstanding doctors twice a year to attend education seminars, some of which are conducted in Singapore.

Japan's goal is to build a society where the general public can know, face and overcome cancer, said Dr Saijo.  

It has come a long way, he noted, spending almost seven times more than what it used to a decade ago, in a bid to promote chemotherapy and radiotherapy, educate medical specialists, provide palliative care from the early phase of treatment, and promote the cancer registry.

Asked what Singapore could do to improve cancer care in this part of the world, Dr Saijo suggested: "Asian countries like Singapore who are more advanced should come together to collate data for Asia."