THE 20 YEAR HISTORY OF JASTRO—THE ROAD TO ITS BIRTH AND HOPE FOR TOMORROW

ABE Mitsuyuki

doi:10.11182/jastro.20.47

Radiotherapy in Japan has long remained sluggish while diagnostic radiology has thrived by an innovation of diagnostic technologies such as CT and MRI in the 1970’s. This stream has attracted many radiologists to radiation diagnostics. There were few who devoted themselves solely to the practice of radiotherapy in those days. In order to promote radiotherapy and establish radiation oncology as a distinct medical specialty, the Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (JASTRO) was founded in February 11, 1988 as a result of enormous and tireless efforts by many radiation oncologists. At the start of the society, the membership was only 943. Initially it has grown slowly in size but increased markedly since the beginning of the 21st century and amounted to 3,195 in 2007. The most serious problem at present is a disproportionate number of radiation oncologists to a rapid increase in the number of radiotherapy patients. To resolve the shortage of radiation oncologists, the departmentalization of radiation oncology is basically important because professors have principal rights and responsibilities for education, training and recruiting of medical students. In recent years it has been recognized that highly advanced radiotherapy including IMRT, IGRT or charged particle radiotherapy can provide equivalent or rather superior survivals to surgery and a good QOL for cancer patients. Radiotherapy is expected to play a leading role in cancer therapy in the not distant future.

THE 20 YEAR HISTORY OF JASTRO—THE ROAD TO ITS BIRTH AND HOPE FOR TOMORROW

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