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| Chief Nahomi Tokudome, M.D., Ph.D. |
At the Division of Breast Oncology, anti-cancer drug treatment (chemotherapy) for breast cancer is provided. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers for women, and both the incident rate and the morbidity have been increasing in Japan. However, it is a type of cancer which drugs can be effective and complete cures can be expected when the therapies with anti-cancer drugs and/or hormone drugs are combined before or after surgeries. The role of chemotherapy for breast cancer is getting crucial, as lately new drugs with proven high efficacy have been developed one after the other. Conventionally, it was breast surgeons that would play major roles in breast cancer treatment in Japan, but the demand for breast oncologists, who are the drug therapy specialists, is getting higher these days in pursuit of complete cure. Moreover, because 20 or 30% of breast cancers will relapse after the surgeries, much is expected for chemotherapy for the recurrences also. Holistic breast cancer treatments, including palliative care to ease pains and other intolerable symptoms, are being provided here.
The doctor providing the treatment here is a breast specialist/oncologist, who has acquired expertise from devoting her studies to breast cancer, encompassing the whole spectrum from basics to clinical application, and is well-versed in a flood of the latest information on breast cancer which is rapidly being updated day-to-day. Even for a complex treatment, the doctor does her best to avoid difficult medical terms to explain, in the efforts to make the medical care attentive to the patient. In addition, newly developed medicine will be swiftly and flexibly adopted any time.
It is one of the responsibilities of oncologists to bring the latest drug therapy into practice without any delay. In order to offer cancer treatments with newly-developed and more efficacy-proven drugs as soon as possible, we participate in many clinical studies (trials). Six newly-developed drugs out of all the clinical tests that we participated in have been approved for practical use, which suggests how updated this division is about new drugs. It is one of the best medical institutions in Japan where the latest drugs are offered and positive clinical outcomes are being presented.
It is not rare for breast cancer patients to have bone metastases, which will be likely to lower the quality of their lives, as the metastases can cause severe pains or bone fractures. At this division, we work together with orthopedists and radiologists to provide thorough treatments for bone metastases making full use of drugs and radiation therapy.
The most significant therapeutic strategy at this division is to provide holistic treatments for breast cancer. An oncologist specializing in drug treatment for breast cancer provides chemotherapy (hormone drug treatment, anti-cancer drug treatment and molecular-targeted drug therapy) as well as palliative care to ease the cancer symptoms. We offer the best cancer treatment tailored for each patient, practicing consummate expertise and collaborating with other clinical divisions where surgery and radiation therapy are provided.
drug treatment for breast cancer, development of new drugs, cancer genome medicine, quality control of clinical studies, translational research
Certified Specialist for Cancer Drug Therapy and Supervisory Doctor, Councilor, the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology
Specialist and Supervisoty Doctor Certified by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society
Registered Medical Practitioner Certified by the Japan Surgical Society
General Clinical Oncologist Certified by the Japanese Board of Cancer Therapy
Doctor for Radiogram Interpretation at the Breast Cancer Screening Certified by the Japan Central Organization on Quality Assurance of Breast Cancer Screening
The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine
The Japanese Society for Hereditary Tumors
The Japan Society of Clinical Oncology
The Japan Association of Breast Cancer Screening
Full Member, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
