Dr. Kuniko Sunami is a specialist in genetic diagnosis and therapy inthe Department ofPathology and Clinical Laboratories, National Cancer Center Hospital, Japan. She participates in the TOP-GEAR project as a clinician, and is active in outreach and creating awareness for building up anational system for treating cancer based on genomic medicine, which is currently being developed. 17tailored to individuals based on genetic data, have become possible. Similar therapies are being promoted in other countries, but Japan has the major advantage of having universal health insurance, in which all citizens are enrolled in some kind of medical insurance. In the world today, medical decisions are based on limited sets of data obtained from clinical trials. Under Japan’s health system, it will be possible in the future to establish unprecedented access to health-related real-world data by gathering information from vast numbers of citizens. Sunami points out, “By accumulating data obtained by gene panel screening, we can look forward to new drug designs and treatment methods being developed, and by better analyzing cancer itself, we will be able to prevent and discover it earlier.” Although gene panel screening for precision medicine is not presently covered by health insurance, there are plans for partial coverage, possibly as early as next year. The stage is being set for full-fledged precision medicine in Japan. This project holds many promises, some obvious, such as allowing the best treatment to be selected for each individual, and others more latent, because by shedding new light on disease itself and suggesting new lines of treatment, it has the potential of contributing to the good health and longevity not only of Japanese citizens, but of people all around the world. How TOP-GEAR Project Genetic Screening Works
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