On 21 October, Open House Group held its first breast cancer awareness seminar at its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The speaker shared her experience battling the disease and introduced a business that provides cancer risk assessment through saliva testing.
A seminar aimed at raising awareness of the importance of early breast cancer detection and treatment was held for the first time at Open House Group’s headquarters. Osanai Yuko (小山内悠子) (39), a deputy general manager in the company’s Human Resources Department who was diagnosed with breast cancer and returned to work after undergoing treatment, spoke about her experience.
Osanai Yuko (小山内悠子) was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38 and underwent the full course of treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and hormone therapy. During her leave of absence, she felt that she was placing a burden on those around her and her family, and stressed the importance of early detection.
Sunamura Makoto (砂村眞琴), a physician and representative director of SalivaTech, also spoke at the seminar, pointing out that breast cancer is the cancer women are most likely to develop and that incidence rises around the age of 40. Data demonstrating Japan’s high standard of cancer treatment were also presented.
SalivaTech’s saliva-based cancer risk assessment was described as enabling individuals to assess their risk of 6 types of cancer using a single drop of saliva. The aim is to support early detection through risk assessment, not diagnosis, and participating female employees indicated that they were considering undergoing the test.