Establishment of International Hibakusha's Medical Information Network.

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Epidemiological studies including Atomic Bomb survivors and children around Chernobyl suggest that thyroid gland as well as bone marrow seem to be one of the most sensitive organs to the carcinogenic effects of external radiation. Since 1999, the satellite-based telemedicine has been successfully introduced between Nagasaki and Gomel in Belarus, and between Nagasaki and Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, respectively. The results of medical assistance are highly evaluated because of increased number of early diagnosis of thyroid cancers and great contribution on surgical treatment for such patients. The exchange programs of researches are aiso useful not only to improve infrastructure of medical knowledge but also to promote mutual understanding among these countries. Now our telemedicine program is undertaken by WHO-SMHF Health Telematics using internet-based telecommunication. Concerning the operated childhood thyroid cancer tissues around Chernobyl, gene rearrangements of ret/PTC subtypes have been reported as a common genetic damage of radiation-associated thyroid cancer. The post-Chernobyl Thyroid Tissues, Nucleic Acids and Data Bank have been just established at the three countries (Minsk, Kiev and Obninsk) as an internationally supported cooperative research resource (http://www.wrl.cam.ac.uk/nisctb), which is now expected to avoid direct competition for limited tissue resources. Owing to such international cooperation, the infrastructure of scientific research on radiation-associated human thyroid carcinogenesis has been established. Finally the two-years project has now paved how we could cooperate and contribute from Nagasaki to the worid but there is a room for improvement, vice verse, how Nagasaki is activated from the world.