(Note: Google Translate from Japanese version with minor touching-ups.)

An Okinawan Fuua Kinjo's surgery for peritoneal malignant mesothelioma was apparently completed on 22nd October. First of all, I was really relieved with it being finished leaving almost no issue, at least reportedly. After reading the Ryukyu Shimpo article dated October 10, reporting about Fuua-chan and her crowdfunding, I donated JPY 10,000 yen to the "Fuua no Kai", a web site established in an effort to draw public attention and collect funding. I did donate the fund as I knew the medical research for new innovation costs extremely high. I thought JPY 10,000 yen was upper limit of my pocket, but the crowdfunding of the goal of planned 20 million yen collected more than 37 million yen. The web site tells that the operation cost cannot be calculated due to the treatment not covered by the national insurance, and the fund-raising activity would be continued until the end of 2020.

Weekly Bunshun, October 15, 2020 issue, carried a novel "Michael's Heartbeat". Michael is the provisional name for a medical robot used for heart transplants. It read, "development of a new medical product costs a lot of research money. It will be even more expensive when entering into practical use. There would be a lot of loss incurred once it were canceled of its production in the middle and before the sales." The author is Yuko Yuzuki, a famous author for police novels.

Yes, innovation for tumor treatment is expensive for radio, chemotherapy, and new drugs such as Opdivo. The Israeli's Optune for brain tumors, which I use, was treated as self-financed medical care in Japan until around 2017, just before it got covered by it, and it is said that it costed more than JPY 12 million a year before its insurance coverage kicked in. Applicable patients also have conditions such as "first occurrence (original occurrence)", "the tumors almost completely excised out of the region", "physically moving without any inconvenience", and "the arrays (electrodes attached to the head) can be replaced along with the family". 

Avastin, a molecular-targeted drug whose application was expanded in 2009, also has a high annual drug price of about JPY 520,000. In my case, brain tumors and lung tumors cannot be treated at the same time, so I've been using Avastin for "buying time" for the lung ones since at the Narita Hospital, giving priority to brain. Fortunately, Avastin has also got shrunken lung tumors so far.

Optune is currently licensed for use in Israel, the headquarters of Novocure the make, the United States where the Novocure's HQs is practically located, Japan, and some others. The other day, a member of the UK rock band reportedly suffered from a brain tumor (GBM), the same one as mine. Although it has been approved for its use by the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK, it is not covered by the NHS (National Health Service), which undertakes national insurance side. My consulting into Wikipedia tells about a quarter of the national budget being into the NHS budget. 

From the national budget stand-point, the perspective of a member of parliament shows normally how much medical expenses should be paid to each person, but from that of of each person, it is a matter of life or death. As a person with the same symptoms, I cannot help feeling regret and even rage for the member of the rock band.

(The photo is on New Year's Day 2016 on the coast of Port Douglas, Australia. Four family members were supposed to jump at the signal of the photographer, but only our younger son (currently 10 years old) is in a subtle crouching pose. To be continued.)