In the year of 2000, the Shikoku Cancer Center launched Familial Tumor Counseling Services to carry out a variety of research into familial tumors. The aim of its activities is to conduct family medical history surveys and to creat a database. As a general rule, attending physicians use a survey sheet to take a family medical history survey for every inpatient. An investigator checks survey sheets once a week, and if inpatients are recognized as not being surveyed yet, the investigator makes another attempt, either directly by himself or through the physician. With the introduction of this survey system, the quality and quantity of family medical history surveys has gradually improved over time. Recovered survey sheets are examined by physicians belonging to the Familial Tumor Counseling Services. Patients who meet the diagnostic criteria for familial tumor and those who are strongly suspected of having familial tumor are registered in the database, and information about their family medical history is entered. This database is constructed using the commercially available pedigree management software, so called Progeny. Our database is unique, because it can contain not only information about pedigree and basic disease, but also biochemical and imaging data incorporated through our institution,s intranet. This database will provide very useful information for medical care and services to the patients with familial tumor in future.
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