The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's “Cancer Professional Training Plan” is a project to train medical personnel specializing in cancer. It began in 2007 when the Basic Act on Cancer Control Measures was enacted, and will start its fourth term in 2023. In the first term, 18 groups comprised of 95 universities across the country participated under the theme of “standardizing cancer treatment”. In the second term, starting in 2012, 15 groups comprised of 100 universities participated under the theme of “educational reform, researcher development and regional collaboration”. In the third term, starting in 2017, 11 groups comprised of 80 universities undertook initiatives under the theme of “cultivating cancer specialists to meet diverse new needs”.
In this fourth term, 11 groups comprised of 76 universities have started working on the “Next Generation Cancer Professional Training Plan”. In our group, universities from the three prefectures of the Hokuriku region, including Kanazawa University, University of Toyama, University of Fukui, Kanazawa Medical University, and Ishikawa Prefectural Nursing University collaborated in the first and second terms, with the five universities working together under Hokuriku Cancer Professional. In the third term, Shinshu University in Nagano Prefecture joined, expanding the activities to the Hokushin region (Hokuriku and Nagano), and the six universities worked together under Hokushin Cancer Professional.
In the fourth term, Nagano College of Nursing has joined Kanazawa University, Shinshu University, University of Toyama, University of Fukui, and Kanazawa Medical University, and the project is now referred to as the “Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional Plan”.
The 4th Basic Plan for Promoting Cancer Countermeasures, which was approved by the Cabinet in March 2023, has the overall goal of “promoting cancer countermeasures that leave no one behind, aiming to overcome cancer together with all citizens”. It set goals for the fields of “cancer prevention”, “cancer treatment” and “coexistence with cancer”, and will promote “strengthening human resource development” as one of the foundations to support these three pillars.
The fourth term of Cancer Professional includes the requirement of training specialized medical personnel, including ① personnel who respond to emerging issues in the field of cancer treatment, ② personnel who promote cancer prevention, and ③ personnel who develop new treatments.
The Hokushin Region Consists of a rapidly aging society with a declining birthrate, which has advanced by more than 15 years compared to the national average, and many patients receive all medical care from diagnosis to treatment and end-of-life care in the area where they live. The Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional Plan recognizes this as a regional characteristic, and we have established the theme of “Developing human resources responsible for seamless cancer treatment in the Hokushin region”. This project will strategically develop multidisciplinary teams of medical personnel to seamlessly provide high-quality medical care from diagnosis to treatment and end-of-life care in the areas where patients live.
From April 2024, 15 educational courses will be launched as Regular Graduate Courses. We also plan to launch 10 intensive courses that can be taken by working healthcare professionals. In all courses, people can attend e-learning and web-based seminars where they can learn the latest information in the field of cancer treatment other than that of the specialized fields necessary to provide seamless cancer treatment.
People can take the intensive course for free if they register, so we hope they will use it as part of their self-improvement and lifelong education.
In the Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional Plan, we will strive to train cancer treatment professionals to support local cancer medical care. We appreciate your continued support and cooperation.

02.29.2024

University of Toyama’s Role in the Next Generation Cancer Professional project
University of Toyama Graduate School regular courses consist of the following three courses: “Cancer Team Treatment Practical Course (Faculty of Medicine)”, “Cardio-Oncology Course (Faculty of Medicine)”, and “Training Course for Pharmacists Who Can Contribute to Local Medical Care and Researchers Who Develop New Cancer Drugs” (Faculty of Pharmacy).
These courses were newly established at the start of the Next Generation Cancer Professional project with the aim of developing personnel who can respond to the issues emerging in the field of cancer treatment. These issues are directly connected to the Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional project theme of “seamless cancer treatment”, and our aim is to respond to the diverse needs of a variety of patients. In order to meet the needs of individual patients, it is most important to build team-based treatment that involves not only conventional medical treatment by doctors but also nurses, pharmacists, social workers, local care managers, and other professionals.
For this reason, the University of Toyama has established the Cancer Team Treatment Practical Course to train personnel responsible for seamless medical treatment. Additionally, cardio-oncology is attracting attention as a new interdisciplinary field. At University of Toyama, we have launched the “Cardio-Oncology Course” in collaboration with the Department of Cardiology, which until now seemed to have little connection to cancer treatment. Cardiology mainly deals with heart failure, arteriosclerosis such as high blood pressure, and thromboembolism, which is the formation of blood clots within blood vessels. It is known that these diseases occur at a high rate in patients suffering from cancer, and it is very important to treat cases where both are combined.
We aim to develop personnel that are not biased only toward their specialty, by working together with experts from each field. We have established the “Training Course for Pharmacists Who Can Contribute to Local Medical Care and Researchers Who Develop New Cancer Drugs”, mainly for students majoring in pharmaceutical sciences in order to develop personnel who can support local pharmacies and contribute to new treatments. In this way, the Cancer Professional project is accurately grasping needs that change with the times and developing highly skilled personnel who can respond to these needs. At University of Toyama, we aim to develop the personnel required in the Hokushin region. We hope that in 5 to 10 years, highly skilled personnel who will be of assistance to everyone will be supporting cancer treatment in the Hokushin region.

02.29.2024

In the Cancer Professional development project, which is entering its fourth term, the University of Fukui has emphasized collaboration with the local community and home care since the first term began in 2007. Providing seamless medical care during cancer treatment is thought to improve the continuity of treatment and the quality of life of patients and their families. In the third term, we carried out various activities with an emphasis on total care, establishing a community cancer specialist course, a home nutrition management course, and a home palliative care course.
In this term’s Next Generation Cancer Professional development project, the Hokushin Cancer Professional development project has set the goal of “developing personnel responsible for seamless cancer treatment”. Cancer treatment is becoming increasingly specialized and segmented, making collaboration across facilities and professions necessary. The University of Fukui will offer the “Integrated Oncology Specialist Course” as a regular course, and the “Seamless Palliative Care Course” and “Seamless Nutritional Management Course” as intensive courses.
We will focus on training specialists with a wide range of cross-disciplinary knowledge, as well as medical personnel who have mastered palliative care and nutritional management, which form the basis of cancer treatment. These courses will not only train the next generation of cancer specialists, but also implement educational activities to advanced cancer treatment using the strengths of multiple professions. Specialists will acquire a wide range of knowledge so that they can provide seamless high-quality medical care, from using the latest diagnostics and treatments to end-of-life care. To help achieve this, we will provide a new e-learning system.
In addition, implementation of the following will be continued: the oncology seminar, which has been held up until the third term; the nursing seminar, which is unique to the University of Fukui; seminars on various topics related to cancer treatment that include not only the university but also local medical professionals; public lectures and on-demand distribution to inform medical institutions in the prefecture and the general public about the flow of new cancer treatment; and the creation and distribution of cancer treatment information booklets. We are also considering joint projects between universities. We will continue to enhance the lectures on cancer education held at the Faculty of Education and the provision of cancer education materials for faculty and staff in the prefecture, which the University of Fukui has been putting effort into for some time.
We look forward to your continued support as we work together with the entire Hokushin region to develop the next generation of medical professionals and raise the level of the entire region.

02.29.2024

At the commencement of the fourth term of Next Generation Cancer Professional (Hokushin Cancer Professional)

We are extremely pleased that Hokushin Cancer Professional, a collaboration between six universities in the Hokushin area, including Kanazawa University, University of Toyama, University of Fukui, Shinshu University, Nagano College of Nursing, and our university, has been adopted for the fourth term (6 years) of the Next Generation Cancer Professional Training Plan promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The theme of Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional is “Developing personnel responsible for seamless cancer care in the Hokushin region”. The project got off to a successful start with a kick-off meeting in September 2023.
There are three main themes for the fourth term of Cancer Professional: ① training of personnel who respond to emerging issues in the field of cancer treatment, ② training of personnel who promote cancer prevention, and ③ training of personnel who develop new treatments. The government aims to promote “community-based treatment'' through this Cancer Professional project. Our hospital has been designated by the prefecture as a regional cancer treatment collaboration hospital, and is primarily responsible for the remote areas of Noto Peninsula (central and northern Noto), which are undergoing depopulation, declining birthrates, and aging populations. There are various medical issues that are becoming increasingly important.
Our university aims to achieve theme ①: training personnel who respond to the shortage of specialized personnel that is becoming evident in the field of cancer treatment”. Through this project, we aim to develop high-quality cancer medical professionals, and our goal is to develop personnel capable of providing holistic personalized medicine that seamlessly delivers peace of mind and trust in local medical care. In other words, we will train personnel who can provide optimal, high-quality medical care that gives all patients and their families peace of mind and satisfaction, covering the entire medical care process from diagnosis to treatment to end-of-life care, taking into consideration everything from individual tumor characteristics to social background. We sincerely hope that the Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional Training Project, which provides flexible and mutually complementary education based on knowledge, experience, and mutual collaboration, will be able to produce as many “true medical professionals” as possible who will lead the next generation of medical care.

02.29.2024

My name is Yozo Nakazawa and I am the project leader for business promotion at Shinshu University. The previous (3rd) Hokushin Cancer Professional project was held in the four Hokushin prefectures (Ishikawa, Toyama, Fukui and Nagano) under the theme of “training advanced cancer treatment professionals in areas with extremely low birthrates and aging populations”. I was in charge of epidemiological research on pediatric and AYA (adolescent/young adult) cancer patients and education for Cancer Professional graduate students. As a result, we were able to construct a database that can quickly and accurately convey the current state of cancer treatment for children with cancer and the AYA generation in the four Hokushin prefectures. We would like to continue to deliver the latest pediatric and AYA generation cancer information in the four Hokushin prefectures to medical professionals and prefectural residents.
The theme of the 4th Hokushin Cancer Professional term is “developing personnel responsible for seamless cancer treatment in the Hokushin region”. We have decided to train personnel who ① can respond to issues that are emerging in the field of cancer treatment, ② can promote prevention, and ③ develop new treatments.
In regards to ②, particularly pressing is the need to train personnel responsible for the care and surveillance of patients and their family members who are incidentally discovered to have a predisposition to hereditary tumors, and personnel to provide continuous support for secondary cancer prevention for rare cancer patients, hereditary cancer patients, and those who have experienced childhood cancer. Therefore, at Shinshu University we have established the “Seamless Cancer Prevention Promotion Certified Genetic Counselor Training Course” in our graduate school master's program. We will train certified genetic counselors who promote cancer prevention across generations, from children and AYA generations to the elderly, with a seamless perspective from personalized prevention to cancer genome treatment, hereditary tumors and palliative care.
In regards to ③, we will train personnel who can develop new cancer immunotherapy for patients who do not respond to immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors, and patients who are not suitable for molecular target therapy based on cancer gene panel testing. Therefore, Shinshu University has established the “Gene/Cell Therapy Researcher Training Course” in the graduate school doctoral program to develop medical personnel who can understand and practice cancer immunotherapy/gene therapy such as CAR-T cell therapy, basic and clinical research physicians who can research and develop new gene and cell therapies, and new gene/cell therapy researchers. We would like to train basic and clinical research physicians who can research and develop cell therapy, and drug discovery researchers who are familiar with the clinical development of regenerative medicine products (certified gene therapy physicians and genetic engineers).
By training these cancer treatment personnel, we hope to contribute to the development of cancer treatment in the four Hokushin prefectures. We hope that you will support us in this endeavor.

02.29.2024

Nagano College of Nursing will be participating in the Next Generation Hokushin Cancer Professional project from the 4th term. It is the only nursing college among the six Hokushin Cancer Professional schools, and cancer certified nurse specialist (cancer CNS).
The theme of the Hokushin Cancer Professional project is “developing personnel responsible for seamless cancer treatment”. This includes the following four perspectives: collaboration (system) between medical institutions and home care in the era of community comprehensive care; comprehensive support for the developmental stage of cancer patients and their families (cancer nursing); consistent support for the distress of cancer patients and their families from the onset of illness to the terminal stage (cancer nursing); and inter-professional work (IPW) in advanced cancer care.
Our university is located in Nagano Prefecture, and in accordance with the prefecture's cancer countermeasure promotion ordinance, we work seamlessly with Shinshu University and core cancer treatment collaboration hospitals. Specifically, we will continue to develop distress care techniques and support systems for cancer patients and their families through Hokushin Cancer Professional training projects and public lectures. At the same time, we are planning advanced training in cancer nursing to support local nursing professionals, and are offering intensive training courses for a wide range of nurses.
In our field of specialty, cancer nursing, as a graduate school educational program for cancer nurses, we are developing palliative care education/training and e-learning materials for the life cycle for a wide range of ages (from children and AYA to the elderly) and consistent distress care from the onset of illness to the terminal stage.
Additionally, in order to promote IPW in advanced cancer treatment, we are conducting the intensive course “IPW Palliative Care Course: Multidisciplinary Collaboration Case Studies” as a continuing program. IPW refers to collaboration between professionals in multiple fields toward a common goal based on their respective skills and roles, and is an activity recommended by the WHO. Cancer treatment requires medical professionals to collaborate, therefore cultivating collaborative ability has been identified as an education/training goal.

Nagano Prefectural College of Nursing is determined to play a role in the above-mentioned development of personnel responsible for seamless cancer treatment in the Hokushin region. We would appreciate your support and cooperation in this endeavor.

02.29.2024