The Second International Course on “Training for Prevention and Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer in Latin America” took place in Santiago, Chile, between August 29th and September 2nd , 2016. Twelve medical professionals from Paraguay and Bolivia were selected to participate in the course.

This course, organized by the Chilean International Cooperation Agency (AGCI) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is conducted annually by experts from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Clínica Las Condes (CLC), and aims to train Latin American oncology professionals in early detection of colorectal cancer, which is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. The doctors who represented TMDU this year were Dr. Takashi Ito (Department of Human Pathology), Dr. Tomoyuki Odagaki (Latin American Collaborative Research Center) and Dr. Takuya Okada (Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery).

In January, 2010, TMDU, CLC and the Ministry of Health of Chile (MINSAL) signed an international agreement to implement the “National Colorectal Cancer Screening Project” (PRENEC), thanks to which TMDU has dispatched several experts to Chile in recent years. As a result, Chilean professionals have been trained in endoscopic techniques and pathological diagnosis, in order to reduce colorectal cancer mortality rates in Chile, creating a precedent in terms of diagnosis and effective treatment for this pathology.