On December 1 & 2 in 2016, the first general meeting of Japan Sarcoma Association and Japan Clinical Sarcoma Association was successfully held in Kyoto.
This was the first formal conference of two sarcoma associations after our 10 years of preparation work. Wide range of topics were discussed including genome analysis, basic medical science, pathological diagnosis, local control treatment, surgical treatment, medical treatment, clinical tests, survivorship, and so on. Three doctors from US also attended. Over 100 doctors, patients and family members could have close communication at an over-dinner gathering on the first night. NPO Cure Sarcoma supported this conference and also participated in the poster sessions.
In the afternoon of the second day, we held an information sharing meeting among patient and family members. Nearly 50 members attended. The event was quite memorable and we really felt a joy of having this sarcoma patient association network. However, the reality is that 3000-5000 new patients suffer from sarcomas and many of them do not have any contacts with this kind of network. We don’t have enough insurance covered medicine and sarcoma is still far from a curable disease. A lot still needs to be done. We would like to work hard for the next step with a help of all the members.
