The government will accelerate the introduction of personalized cancer treatment at hospitals across the country by creating a database of all patients’ genetic information and promoting the development of new diagnostic methods, sources familiar with the matter said.

Japan is lagging behind other industrialized countries in providing tailor-made cancer treatments based on genetic tests. The government will designate several hospitals by March next year for introducing such treatments.

Only a handful of hospitals in Japan are using genomic information on a trial basis to guide treatment decisions for cancer patients.

The government plans to offer funding and other support to hospitals to make the treatment available nationwide in several years, the sources said.

It aims to create a database of all patients’ genetic mutations, treatment records and side effects and use it to promote the development of new treatment and less invasive methods of detecting cancers, they said.

KEYWORDS cancer, hospitals