This website is called "Gan Chiryo-hi.com." "Gan" means a cancer, and "Chiryo-hi" means medical expenditure for patients in Japanese language. "Gan Chiryo-hi.com" has been published for the purpose of delivering general idea of the medical expenditure to cancer patients, prior to making their final decisions with regard to cancer therapies. Therefore, this website contains (1) estimated medical expenditures of each treatment option based on different types and different stages of cancer, and (2) other related cost information of cancer treatment.

Brief explanation of calculation criteria for such medical expenditure is summarized as below;-.

Types of Cancer:

Types of cancer, which you can find in this website, are Gastric (Stomach) cancer, Colon & Rectal cancer, Lung cancer (Non-small cell & Small cell,) Liver cancer, and Breast cancer, as of May 2009.

Treatment Options:

Treatment options, which are used in calculation of the estimated medical expenditure, are chosen based on the standard clinical path for each type of cancer in accordance with the authorized therapeutic guideline of a Japanese medical association.

Treatment Cost:

Treatment cost of each cancer therapy is calculated based on the average amount of treatment cost by patients’ weight, height, and gender. Such treatment cost is determined and authorized under the rules of Japanese Medical Security System. Moreover, average of treatment cost had been referred to sample data of medical bill claim in Japan by us.

In the light of those criteria in the above, the estimated medical expenditures are calculated by “Computational Engine,” 5 year medical expenditure is indicated in vertical rows, and costs of each categorized cancer therapy is displayed in horizontal rows.

(Example of How to Use “Computational Engine”)

When you click on "Non-small cell Lung cancer" and "Stage II" buttons, you will find 5 treatment options such as surgery, thoracoscopical surgery, radiation therapy, heavy particle therapy, and surgery with adjuvant therapy as well as the total amount of the medical expenditure for 5-year treatment. Thereafter, when you click on one of the options, the amount of monthly medical expenditure for 5 years will be displayed.

Cost of Anti-Cancer Drug

Costs of anti-cancer drugs are individually provided in this website. The costs of anti-cancer drugs in each webpage are shown by one course of the treatment.
For example, when you click on “cost of anti-cancer drug” button for "Breast cancer," you may find total cost of JPY 81,370 with the combination therapy of EC (Epirbicin + Cyclophosphamide) as 3-week (or 1 course) treatment.

Medical Security System

Information of the Medical Security System in Japan is available in this website. The Medical Security System is one of the characteristics of the Japanese national healthcare insurance system. The Japanese national healthcare insurance system is that citizens and residents in Japan are obliged to register for one of the health insurances by their occupations.
Registered citizens and residents to the insurance system in Japan generally pay for 30% of total medical expenditure of the cancer treatments, which are determined by Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare.
In addition, this insurance system allows a monthly upper limit of individual medical expenditure, which is divided into 2 levels by the amount of monthly income. 　The lower limit of the monthly medical expenditure is up to around JPY 80,000, and the higher limit is around JPY 150,000 per month.　When citizens and residents in Japan pay for morn than the limit of the said monthly medical expenditure, they can claim to be reimbursed the exceeding amount of the medical expenditure per month under the Benefit for High-Cost Medical Care of the insurance system.

On the final note, we sincerely hope that the information on this website may be of use to cancer patients and their families for making better decision.