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Letter
Bridge the deep chasm between patients with cancer and palliative care in Japan
  1. Kazuhiro Kosugi1,
  2. Kenji Tsuda2,
  3. Asaka Higuchi3,
  4. Jinichi Mori4 and
  5. Tetsuya Tanimoto5
  1. 1 Department of Palliative Care, Kawasaki Municipal Ida Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
  2. 2 Department of Hematology and Rheumatology, Teikyo University Chiba Medical Center, Chiba, Japan
  3. 3 Department of Hematology, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
  4. 4 Department of Hematology, Jyoban Hospital of Tokiwa Foundation, Fukushima, Japan
  5. 5 Department of Internal Medicine, Navitas Clinic, Tokyo, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kazuhiro Kosugi, Department of Palliative Care, Kawasaki Municipal Ida Hospital, 2-27-1 Ida Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa-Pref 211-0035, Japan; kanabunapapa{at}gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2017-001329

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    Letter to the Editor

    Patients with incurable diseases often crave for various unproven cell therapies worldwide.1 In Japan, after induced pluripotent stem cells were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012, the government has vigorously supported the development of potential clinical application of cell therapies, resulting larger-than-life hype and hope among the public. Aside from legitimate clinical trials, many for-profit clinics offer unproven cell-based procedures, with more than half of indication for advanced cancer.2 They often advertise online to draw patients' attention, promising effectiveness that have little …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors KK and TT conceived the study. All authors drafted and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript. KK and TT are the study guarantors and are responsible for the decision to submit for publication.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.