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Japanese structure survey of radiation oncology in 2009 with special reference to designated cancer care hospitals

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Abstract

Background

The structure of radiation oncology in designated cancer care hospitals in Japan was surveyed in terms of equipment, personnel, patient load, and geographic distribution, and compared with the structure in other radiotherapy facilities and the previous survey.

Methods

The Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology surveyed the national structure of radiation oncology in 2009. The structures of 365 designated cancer care hospitals and 335 other radiotherapy facilities were compared.

Results

Designated cancer care hospitals accounted for 50.0 % of all the radiotherapy facilities in Japan. The patterns of equipment and personnel in designated cancer care hospitals and the other radiotherapy facilities were, respectively, as follows: linear accelerators per facility: 1.4 and 1.0; dual-energy function: 78.6 and 61.3 %; three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy function: 88.5 and 70.0 %; intensity-modulated radiotherapy function: 51.6 and 25.3 %; annual number of patients per linear accelerator: 301.3 and 185.2; Ir-192 remote-controlled after-loading systems: 31.8 and 4.2 %; and average number of full-time equivalent radiation oncologists per facility: 1.8 and 0.8. Compared with the previous survey, the ownership ratio of equipment and personnel improved in both designated cancer care hospitals and the other radiotherapy facilities. Annual patient loads per full-time equivalent radiation oncologist in the designated cancer care hospitals and the other radiotherapy facilities were 225.5 and 247.6, respectively. These values exceeded the standard guidelines level of 200.

Conclusions

The structure of radiation oncology in designated Japanese cancer care hospitals was more mature than that in the other radiotherapy facilities. There is still a shortage of personnel. The serious understaffing problem in radiation oncology should be corrected in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and Grants-in-Aid for Cancer Research (H22-3rd Term Cancer Control-General-043 and H23-3rd Term Cancer Control-General-007) from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan and by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (No. 23591838). We would like to express our appreciation to all ROs and radiotherapy technologists throughout Japan who participated in this survey, for providing us with valuable information to make this study possible. This study was supported by JASTRO.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Physics and Engineering, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-7, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Hodaka Numasaki & Teruki Teshima

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, National Hospital Organization Hokkaido Cancer Center, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Masamichi Nishio

  3. Department of Radiation Oncology, Sakai City Hospital, Sakai, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroshi Ikeda

  4. Department of Radiation Oncology, St. Luke’s International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Kenji Sekiguchi

  5. Department of Radiology, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan

    Norihiko Kamikonya

  6. Oncology Center, Osaka University Hospital, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Masahiko Koizumi

  7. Department of Radiology, Teikyo University School of Medicine University Hospital, Mizonokuchi, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

    Masao Tago

  8. Research Center Hospital for Charged Particle Therapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan

    Yutaka Ando

  9. Department of Radiation Oncology, Saiseikai Yokohamashi Tobu Hospital, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

    Nobuhiro Tsukamoto

  10. Department of Radiology, University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Atsuro Terahara

  11. Department of Clinical Radiology, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medicine Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan

    Katsumasa Nakamura

  12. Division of Radiation Oncology, Shizuoka Cancer Center, Shizuoka, Japan

    Tetsuo Nishimura

  13. Hyogo Ion Beam Medical Center, Tatsuno, Hyogo, Japan

    Masao Murakami

  14. Department of Radiology, Kiryu Kosei Hospital, Kiryu, Gunma, Japan

    Mitsuhiro Takahashi

Authors
  1. Hodaka Numasaki
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  2. Masamichi Nishio
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  3. Hiroshi Ikeda
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  4. Kenji Sekiguchi
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  5. Norihiko Kamikonya
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  6. Masahiko Koizumi
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  7. Masao Tago
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  8. Yutaka Ando
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  9. Nobuhiro Tsukamoto
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  10. Atsuro Terahara
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  11. Katsumasa Nakamura
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  12. Tetsuo Nishimura
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  13. Masao Murakami
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  14. Mitsuhiro Takahashi
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  15. Teruki Teshima
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Consortia

Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology Database Committee

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Teruki Teshima.

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Numasaki, H., Nishio, M., Ikeda, H. et al. Japanese structure survey of radiation oncology in 2009 with special reference to designated cancer care hospitals. Int J Clin Oncol 18, 775–783 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-012-0468-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-012-0468-7

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