Large amounts of anticancer drugs are administered to patients every day in Japan at the discretion of doctors. A few of them have produced dramatic results, but most have not proven effective in prolonging life.
Behind this lies collusion between pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions to grab large chunks of medical spending. For both domestic and foreign drugmakers, cancer patients in Japan have become a "plant on which money grows."
In general terms, anticancer drugs are quite effective for malignant tumors in hematogenous organs like leukemia and malignant lymphoma. The chance of curing infantile acute lymphoblastic leukemia, once regarded as deadly, has now reached 80 percent while a combination of some anticancer drugs and other treatments has served to prolong the life span of patients with breast, ovary, large intestinal or lung cancer. But these are rare exceptions. Anticancer drugs have not demonstrated clear effects against other types of cancer.