National
Faith Aquino on Jun 13 2013
A panel from the Ministry of Health approved to provide medical insurance to patients who have breast reconstruction surgery following a mastectomy because of
breast cancer. The decision is intended to reduce burden on cancer patients, who have to undergo surgical removal of one or both of their breasts. The medical insurance coverage, announced on Wednesday, will be carried out next month.
An ongoing study being led by researchers from the Fukushima Medical University on the impact of nuclear radiation from the disaster-stricken atomic power plant on
Fukushima residents has found a slight increase in thyroid cancer cases in the area’s younger population. Data shows 12 minors with confirmed thyroid cancer diagnoses, up from a total three in a report in February, with 15 others suspected to have
cancer, up from seven from that same report earlier this year. The numbers and data were taken from about 174,000 people aged 18 or younger whose initial thyroid screening results were positive.
Interest in issues involving breast cancer and its treatment is at an all-time high, this after award-winning actress Angelina Jolie revealed that she had undergone a double mastectomy because of a high risk of the said disease. It should prove as good news for the medical world that Japanese
cancer specialist Kumiko Karasawa has revealed on Wednesday that has started the world's first clinical trials of a powerful, non-surgical, short-term radiation therapy for breast cancer.
If you like to eat salty food, then this is not good news for you. A study from Japan has discovered that people who eat salted food in large quantities will almost double the risk of stomach
cancer. It’s mostly common knowledge that food with a lot of sodium chloride can eventually lead to high blood pressure, but this new study from Japanese researchers also connects salt to increased risk of stomach cancer as well.
After news came out that Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy because she carried a faulty gene that would cause
breast cancer, interest in the procedure as a preventive measure has increased. St. Luke's International Hospital in
Tokyo said it's ready to conduct preventive mastectomy procedures for women who test positive in genetic screening for breast cancer.
Just because Japan has been ranked number one in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for the past twenty years doesn't mean that the people and the government should be complacent. This is according to Kenji Shibuya, a professor of Global Health Policy at the
University of Tokyo and one of the lead researchers in the "2010 Global Burden of Disease", published in The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and The Lancet Journal.
Kazunori Igarashi is optimistic that he can finish his first full distance race on October 27 in this year's
Osaka Marathon – in his wheelchair. The 47-year-old Igarashi is a cancer victim, and he lost his hip to a cancer operation nine years ago. Igarashi, a native of Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, had planned to join the annual race last year but was forced to withdraw as symptoms of his cancer had begun to show again. This year, Igarashi is determined to finish the race.
Japan’s
Takeda Pharmaceutical, touted to be Asia’s largest drug-maker, lost a lawsuit filed by a California resident over the drug manufacturer’s anti-diabetes product Actos. Takeda must pay US6.5 million dollars in damages to the man after a jury ruled that the Japanese drug-makers failed to warn the public about Actos’ tendency to cause cancer.
A study published in Science Translational Medicine says that researchers at the
RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan have identified a compound that can possibly prevent a relapse in acute myeloid leukemia patients. AML is the most common acute leukemia found in adults and starts in the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow.
Investigators from the
Osaka Labor Bureau and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare searched the head offices of printing firm
Sanyo-CYP Co. on Tuesday, as complaints of neglect of their employees’ health were brought to the authorities attention. The Osaka-based company has recently been put in the spotlight in light of the fact that 17 of their workers suffer from bile duct cancer. Eight of the 17 have already died.
