Training Courses

Introduction

We offer 2 types of resident training courses for medical doctors. One is designed for young physicians and surgeons who have 2 years or more of clinical experience; the objective of this course is to allow general practitioners to specialize in clinical oncology. Individuals undergoing this course are simply called residents. Their training period is 3 years. We accept approximately 15 new residents each year. A second more advanced 2-year course is designed to train future leaders in specific fields. Up to 15 physicians and surgeons with 5–12 years of clinical experience enter this program every year and are called chief residents.
When the National Cancer Center Hospital East (NCCHE) opened in July 1992, the resident training course comprised 8 young doctors. Although initially these doctors were faced with many difficulties and problems, they continued to study hard as well as carrying out daily clinical work at the hospital. We have continued to develop our training systems in close cooperation with hospital staff members and the Research Center for Innovative Oncology (RCIO). Of the resident or senior resident graduates, 20 have been invited to work at NCCHE, 6 at NCCH, and 24 at other cancer centers in Japan, in spite of having have a history of only 13 terms—an indication of the superior quality of our resident system. A steady rise in NCCHE’s clinical and academic reputation has resulted in an increase in voluntary medical trainees, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and technicians. Because of the enforcement of the Cancer Control Act in 2007, the number of trainees is expected to increase, particularly in the fields of medical oncology, palliative care, pharmacy, and radiation therapy. Establishing training courses for these individuals is mandatory.

Routine Activities

The curriculum for residents at NCCHE consists of 2 parts: special and rotating courses. For the initial 6 months, residents are trained in disease- or therapy-specific units (see the Index page) of their choice to enable them to pursue their special interests. Next, they move to other clinical units (rotating course) for one or one and a half years to strengthen their basic knowledge base and to learn clinical oncology techniques. After these residents complete the rotating courses, they return to their chosen specialty and graduate as medical or surgical oncologists.
Trainees in the chief resident course spend their first year as physicians or surgeons at specific clinical units. The training program for chief residents is focused on the study of particular organs, diagnostics, and/or therapeutics. Chief residents work as coordinators of residents, whom they support in clinical practice. The second year is devoted to basic or clinical research. Staff members from RCIO and clinical laboratories support chief residents on request.
Voluntary trainees are divided into 2 groups: (1) trainees who are guaranteed funding from a domestic or international project and (2) others. Various training courses are available for voluntary trainees, although the training period is limited to less than a year for any one major field.

Recent Trend

We have overcome many of the difficulties that we experienced on launching the training program at NCCHE. Every year improvements have been introduced not only in the training system for doctors but also in those for technicians, nurses, and nursing students. This has resulted in a constant increase in the number of trainees; this number exceeded 200 in 2003. In 2004, the total number of trainees reached 342. This was due to the marked increase in the number of medical doctor voluntary trainees and students from the National College of Nursing, established in 2001, as well as those from other nursing schools. These trainees undergo practical training in oncology nursing at NCCHE, according to their college curricula in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years. The number of medical doctors markedly decreased once in 2004 and 2006. This may be due to legal amendments to the postgraduate education system in Japan in 2004. The number of medical doctor increased once again 2007.
In the field of pharmacy, a new resident training system was adopted in 2006; this system was expanded in 2007. It will be further improved in 2008 to meet the qualification requirement for oncology pharmacists. The total number of trainees reached 395 in 2007 partly because of the Cancer Control Act enforced in 2007.

● H. Esumi ●

Number of residents, senior residents, and voluntary trainees
July 1992–December 2007
Voluntary trainees
  Resident C. resident M.D. Nurse Technicians Others Total
1992 8 0 0 0 0 0 8
1993 15 0 0 9 4 0 28
1994 23 0 9 12 1 0 45
1995 27 3 25 10 5 0 70
1996 31 6 37 1 3 2 80
1997 35 7 54 16 5 10 127
1998 36 12 56 20 4 1 147
1999 34 12 62 17 3 27 155
2000 34 12 51 25 7 10 139
2001 35 12 59 25 7 22 160
2002 36 12 60 12*+24 7 23 174
2003 36 17 62 93*+15 12 26 261
2004 33 16 96 135*+17 4 41 342
2005 35 18 48 170*+4 3 24 302
2006 37 21 35 148*+33 2**+2 14 292
2007 40 24 55 175*+19 12**+4 53***+13 ****395 *
Practical training for students from the National College of Nursing and other schools
** Pharmacy Residents, *** Voluntary pharmacists, ****Nutritionists

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