Tokyo ? Cancer patients will more likely survive five years after initial treatment if they are treated at hospitals that have handled more cancer cases, according to results of the nation’s first relevant research based on data on about 70,000 patients.

The results, to be carried in an English-language medical magazine on clinical studies on cancer, indicate that high-quality cancer treatment is best achieved by concentrating treatment in hospitals with such experience.

The Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases conducted research on the relation between how many each of about 330 hospitals in Osaka Prefecture treated patients of 13 major cancers from 1994 to 1998, and results.

The data were taken from 70,000 patients registered with local governments. As of April, the governments of Osaka, 34 other prefectures and the Hiroshima municipal government had collected information on local cancer patients to find the incidence and survival rates of the patients.