What are the essential challenges in cancer treatment in Japan?

Ever since my mother was given a terminal diagnosis, the days have been painful. Initially, I published two articles as a "cry from the heart."

However, it is precisely at times like these that one must respond logically and calmly.

After being dominated by certain emotions, I regained my composure as a theorist and began to tackle the proposition of "how to realize the person's wishes."
Fortunately, my career of analyzing and evaluating unknown information has been put to good use, and I believe I have been able to arrive at the essential challenges in cancer treatment in Japan.


We live in an era where one in two Japanese people will develop cancer.
I thought that what I gained through this proposition would surely be useful to someone, so I would like to talk about it openly this time (hereinafter, I will write in the "de aru" style to reduce character count).

1 Establish the grand principles
When the first report is received, the person and those around them are inevitably shaken. Sometimes opinions diverge and things get out of control. In such cases, start by establishing the grand principles.

(1) Be close to the person's feelings
The first thing to think about is "being close to the person's feelings."And as the situation changes, this grand principle must remain consistent so that the person's feelings are not left behind.

(2) The person themselves decides their remaining life
Is it appropriate for someone other than the person themselves to decide their remaining life, saying things like "I've lived long enough," without confirming the actual situation, just by taking the impression of words like "pancreatic cancer, stage 4" or a "terminal diagnosis" at face value?

People who live life to the fullest might try to enjoy the life they have left. However, my mother was not that type.

"I still want to live and be healthy."

If the person says that, it is the family's duty to support them in that direction as much as possible.

If they lose the hope to live, the disease will progress even faster. "Let's do our best together, we can surely overcome this," keep encouraging them like that. That is what it means to be close to someone's feelings.

Death comes to everyone.
Lifespanis decided by God, but
remaining lifeis decided by the person themselves.

(3) The person themselves also decides the treatment method
And the person themselves also decides the treatment method.

However, sometimes the person loses the ability to think. This is likely a significantly difficult barrier, especially for the elderly. In my mother's case, even when I ask "what do you want to do?", she often answers "I don't know."

Perhaps it is either because it is difficult to understand, she has forgotten, or she does not want to think about it.

In such cases, those around them need to guide them in the appropriate direction based on a firm "conviction."

Those around them find options and work out the details concretely. After such preparations are made, it is up to the person whether or not to choose that method in the end.

(4) Treatment costs should be within the scope of the person's assets
Treatment methods not covered by insurance are quite expensive. Depending on the situation, basically, those around them should avoid paying out of pocket without limit, and it is better to keep treatment costs within the scope of the person's assets(Note 1).

(Note 1) In addition to the person's savings, this includes cashing out stocks, securities, precious metals, movable property, and real estate through transfer or sale, life insurance living benefits, and cancellation refunds for funeral savings (i.e., having a small funeral).

(5) At the same time, prepare for the end
However, as a practical matter, the survival rate for elderly people with stage 4 pancreatic cancer is extremely low. In that sense, preparation for the end is also necessary.

Palliative care (alleviation of physical and mental symptoms, maintenance of QOL (Quality of Life), etc.)(Note 2), terminal care (end-of-life medical care) beyond that, and even living wills should be discussed in detail.

(Note 2) Also called hospice, but hospice is a concept that came from Christianity and also includes religious concepts of helping with the journey to the afterlife.

In addition, do what the person can while they are alive, such as creating a will, making lifetime gifts, funeral wishes, going to places they wanted to go, meeting people they wanted to meet, and hearing stories they hadn't been able to hear.

2 Understand the mechanism of how cancer occurs
(1) Cancer cells are created every day
In the human body, which consists of approximately 60 trillion 37 trillion cells, everyone without exception creates thousands of cancer cells every day as they repeat metabolism.

However, healthy people do not develop cancer because their immune systems are working normally.

(2) Cancer is not a coincidence but an inevitability
A accumulation of lifestyle habits that lower immunity, or natural healing power, creates cancer. In particular, stress and the deterioration of diet and intestinal environment lower immunity, and surviving cancer cells develop in stages, leading to cancer.

In other words, most cancers are not a product of "coincidence" that happened to occur, but a result brought about by oneself, and can be said to be "inevitable."

Furthermore, if you do not change your bad lifestyle habits, cancer will recur. "Changing the way you have lived until now" is the true cancer treatment.

It is essential to teach and persuade the person themselves of this, and to ensure they fully understand it.

3 Grasp the medical condition thoroughly
In the first place, "Stage 4" does not necessarily mean "terminal cancer." It simply means that metastasis to other organs has been confirmed, and that surgery and radiation therapy, which are part of the three major therapies, are difficult.

In the case of solid tumors, patients die because the tumor compresses internal organs causing organ failure, or because cancer cells steal nutrients.

Conversely, even if a tumor is found and has metastasized,as long as you stop the progression and the organs remain normal, you can continue to live.

Therefore, do not make assumptions.

● What is the current situation?
● Specifically, where is the tumor located?
● Is organ failure actually occurring?
● What are the possibilities for progression and the prognosis?

Do not try to be an easy-going patient; it is important to frankly confirm anything you do not understand.

4 Get an overview of cancer treatment
Once you know the current situation, you can begin to consider which treatment methods are effective. The figure below shows an overview of cancer treatment in Japan.

Below, I will provide supplementary information regarding the marks in the figure.

*1 Western medicine is not absolute
What stands in the way is the massive wall that is the Japanese cancer treatment system. Western medicine is based onsymptomatic treatment. It does not perform or advise on treatments that are not in theclinical practice guidelinesbased on EBM (Evidence-Based Medicine).

However, if you look at it from a bird's-eye view as shown in the figure,it is clear that Western medicine is only a "part" of various treatment methods. First, it is important to be freed from the spell that it is "absolute."

*2 Is alternative medicine effective?
Among the free-access medical treatments outside the guidelines, there are also treatments that attemptradical treatment. However, since the government and medical institutions do not monitor this field, you will have to search for them on your own.

However, this field is said to be amixture of good and bad, and for most of them, effectiveness has not been proven. It is difficult to evaluate what is "good" and what is "bad," but for example, for treatments such astreatments that boost immune power,

● Theoretically sound
● Few side effects
● Not entirely without evidence, and there are confirmed cases of people who have improved

it would be worth trying such treatments.

At that time, do not belittle or deny Western medicine. To ensure that you do not become so absorbed in alternative medicine that you neglect to check the person's condition,
use alternative medicine while keeping the Western medicine attending physician as the foundation.
On the other hand, the problem that accompanies alternative medicine is the high cost. Most are not covered by insurance. For how to raise the funds, please refer to the aforementioned "1(4) Treatment costs should be within the scope of the person's own assets."

*3 Should anticancer drugs be used?
When metastasis to other organs is confirmed and a diagnosis of Stage 4 is made, local treatments (surgery, radiation) are rejected as "ineffective."

In that case, the only remaining means is chemotherapy (anticancer drugs).

However, at Stage 4, the purpose of using anticancer drugs finally becomes
"life extension".

Since anticancer drugs lower immune power, they push the path to remission further away.

After being plagued by side effects, they eventually stop working. For the elderly, there is conversely a risk of"life shortening".

*4 Self-care is fundamentalNeither doctors nor nursing services provide dietary therapy or nutritional guidance to restore immune power.

Even if you ask, the only answer you get is "eat as you normally do," so as long as you leave it to the doctors, you will not reach a fundamental cure.

Therefore, as mentioned earlier,
returning to the starting point that "cancer is something I brought upon myself,"it becomes necessary to fundamentally review lifestyle habits and engage in various self-care through self-help efforts.

Actually,from "22:55"introduced"A Way of Living Where Cancer Heals Naturally"and other books, there are a certain number of cancer patients in the world who have gone into remission through self-care.

In daily life, improvement of water and diet is essential, and it is better to avoid tap water, food additives, synthetic preservatives, expired ingredients, and excessive intake of salt and sugar.

If cooking is difficult, it is good touse mail-order services centered on natural ingredients.

"Wasteful" is fatal. Dispose of old ingredients one after another. If it is difficult to manage expiration dates,store ingredients by "freezing" them as much as possible.

Tabletop water servers are easy to handle, including the ease of bottle replacement. Since hot water is always available, risks such as forgetting to turn off the stove can also be reduced.

While it depends on the medical condition and prescriptions, I would like to use supplements as much as possible, especiallysupplements that improve the intestinal environmentin combination.

In addition, I will guide them toward a life that is safe and has a higher QOL by using all my ingenuity, such as adjusting the air conditioning (temperature, humidity, and cleanliness), renting nursing care equipment, removing obstacles in each room and along movement paths, and creating a system where exercise and hobbies become part of daily life.

The success or failure of self-care depends on the person's change in awareness as well as the persuasiveness of those around them.

However, it would be counterproductive if self-care became an ordeal. Changing lifestyle habits is not easy, so forcing it is forbidden.

Care must be taken not to focus only on methods and leave the person's feelings behind.

*5 Management items are also self-help efforts
Those around the patient will have to apply for public long-term care insurance while juggling work and family, and support various management items such as the patient's schedule, medical records, and food ingredients.

Prescriptions also become complicated, so ingenuity is required.

Changes in blood components such as tumor markers, white blood cell counts, and lymphocyte counts can be grasped by ourselves, so it is important to take an interest in them yourself rather than leaving it all to the doctor.

5 Deriving the direction of treatment
In symptomatic treatment using Western medicine, it is either cutting out the cancer, drugging it, or burning it. However, in the case of an elderly person like my mother who is at stage 4, there is nothing to do but palliative care.

That is where alternative medicine comes in, but among the various treatment methods, you cannot just try everything.

When considering the direction of treatment,the most fundamental and important point is to aim for the normalization of the immune systemということ。

In the first place, getting cancer is the result of a problem occurring somewhere in the immune cycle shown in the figure below.

Therefore, it is important to take measures against the defects in the person's immune cycle andmake sure to keep the immune cycle runningthat is important.

At the same time, strengthening immunity through fundamental improvement of lifestyle habits (the self-care mentioned above) leads tofundamental treatment in the true sense.

6 Problems related to cancer treatment in Japan (1) Absence of a command tower that can oversee the whole

There are many people in society who pretend to be "experts in XX," which creates the harmful effects of vertical segmentation, and generalists or command towers who can overlook the big picture are not well-developed.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare should be responsible for this in the medical field, but as can be seen from the "missing pension" problem in 2007, it is extremely sloppy and bureaucratic even among government ministries.

In fact,
the ministry's integrative medicine siteis not quite helpful enough.
I would like to see a system where we can receive comprehensive advice in the initial stages, from alternative medicine and self-care to management items, by outsourcing to the private sector.
(2) The burden on patients and families is heavy
As a result, the burden on patients and families increases. Many families are still forced to start from scratch after finding out about cancer.

On the other hand,
there are actually many people in the world who "interfere but do not take action."
There are many stories of people wasting precious time being misled by irresponsible information at the level of rumors brought by such people. (3) The scope of public medical insurance is narrow

Japan's insurance system, which is also called universal health insurance, has been based on mutual aid from the beginning. We are in an era where one in two people gets cancer. In order to secure the working population, shouldn't we

expand the scope of public medical insurance
? (4) Western medicine-oriented

Western medicine, which considers symptomatic treatment to be correct, naturally has its limits. Isn't the trend of viewing Western medicine as absolute hindering the development of medicine?
If the country were to embark on the development of alternative medicine, the resistance forces clinging to the vested interests of the medical world would not remain silent.
However, it is time to shift the focus to fundamental treatment. The field of cancer treatment in Japan should support not only symptomatic treatment but also fundamental treatment in parallel.

Unless this way of thinking becomes common sense, cancer treatment in Japan will not be able to exceed its limits.


7 The true meaning of "resisting fate"

When receiving the first report, those around the patient are trapped by negative images such as "pancreatic cancer," "stage 4," and "life expectancy announcement," and are suggested that it is "already too late." And my belief that "I will stand by my mother's wish to 'want to live' and do everything I can in that direction" was misunderstood as "I am obsessed with my mother's survival."

This was the moment I realized that this is a fight against cancer, and at the same time,

a fight against fixed ideas and medical systems that arbitrarily determine people's lives
. I will fight these, stand by my mother's feeling of "wanting to live," and continue to support her hope. This is the true meaning of "resisting fate."

Conclusion
My position from the beginning was "to prepare for my mother's end while not giving up on treatment."

However, in the current situation where medical institutions avoid giving advice on free medical care that might have hope for treatment, there is no other way but for the person and their family to think and act for themselves.

I think a life expectancy announcement is really irresponsible. In fact, my mother, who was even told that "it would be difficult to see the end of the year," seems to be able to see the end of the year safely.

In this paper, I introduced ways of thinking to overcome cancer and various methods, but as I stated at the beginning,"standing by the person's feelings" is the grand principle.

I think the best healing is for the person to feel that"they understood the pain and unbearable suffering that only I know."
When the time finally comes to pass away, if they think, "Ah, this child fought with me for my sake, I was loved, it was a happy life," that might be called one form of healing.

Also, the valuable knowledge and experience gained precisely because of "resisting fate" will be put to good use in a better way when another important person gets cancer someday.

And it will even change my own way of living in the future.

I think my mother is teaching me that with her own body now🍀

[Reference Books]

I have read many other books besides these, but there are also wicked people in the world who plan to make money with invitations like "I am the ally of cancer patients," so please try to "not take everything at face value"🌱