title: Recent advances in palliative cancer care at a regional hospital in Japan.
abstract: More than 30 years have passed since the introduction of the concept of palliative care in cancer care in Japan. However, the majority of the estimated three million cancer patients in Japan do not receive palliative care. Higashi Sapporo Hospital was established in 1983 as a hospital specialized in cancer care. The palliative care unit of our hospital currently consists of 58 beds. Our hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Japan in terms of the number of palliative care beds. On admission to our hospital, all patients are evaluated for palliative care by a multi-disciplinary team and some patients who undergo anticancer therapy receive palliative care when necessary. There are about 65 patients on average (28.3%) who are receiving only palliative care. In 2011, 793 patients died of cancer while admitted at our hospital. This number of cancer deaths accounted for 15% of the 5,324 cancer deaths in Sapporo City in the same year. Our hospital has played an active role according to the philosophy that "palliative cancer care is part of cancer medical care". We here report the current status of the contribution of our hospital to overcoming problems in palliative care and cancer care in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan terui@hsh.or.jp.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Terui
authors.affiliation: Department of palliative medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirayama
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kusakabe
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan Department of medical oncology and hematology, Sapporo Medical University, School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mihara
authors.affiliation: Department of palliative medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of palliative medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of palliative medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuhisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.affiliation: Department of medical oncology and hematology, Sapporo Medical University, School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishitani
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: cancer refugees; length of stay; malignant tumor hospital; multidisciplinary team; palliative cancer care; universal health care system in Japan