Abstract
The Tohoku district is the northeast area of Honshu, the largest island in Japan, and the area has shown poor development historically. The area comprises 17% of Japanese geography, but the population is only 8% of the total, and most of the area is comprised of steep mountains zones.
So, we have built the system in which we have connected the outpatient clinic for hereditary cancer in Hoshi General Hospital in Koriyama and Fukushima Medical University Hospital in Fukushima which are nodal points of the Japanese Society of Familial Tumors, with physicians in charge in local hospitals using information technology, to improve the medical care provided for patients with familial or hereditary tumors. The Tohoku Familial Tumor Association was established in 1997 with the cooperation of about 50 medical institutions. The purposes of Tohoku Familial Tumor Association are education regarding the importance of the study of familial or hereditary cancer, promotion of a joint study and coordination of genetic testing. The annual meeting has been held in Sendai which is the central city of the Tohoku district and information concerning with familial or hereditary tumor is delivered real time using information technology. With coordination of genetic testing, we do judging of competence, provide advice about explanations of diseases and informed consent regarding genetic testing and counseling for familial or hereditary tumor and for genetic testing.
