2006 Volume 46 Issue 4 Pages 309-314
Reducing mortality due to lung cancer deaths is the most important issue in the fight against cancer. As a practical solution the authors propose a completely new paradigm for cancer diagnosis. This approach calls for the popularization of lung cancer screening CT to cover over 50% of the entire Japanese population aged between 40 and 84 by 2025 and the treatment of the early-stage lung cancer thus detected by the single-dose carbon ion radiotherapy modality developed by the authors. By this means it would be possible to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate by over 22%. The strategic installation of carbon ion radiotherapy facilities exclusively dedicated to the treatment of lung cancer throughout Japan would permit lung cancer treatment on a large scale at a lower cost than with current surgery.
