The National Cancer Center Japan started to provide free, computer-based cancer information, through a service called the National Cancer Center--Cancer Information Service (NCC-CIS), to patients and their families, physicians and other health professionals via fax (telephone) and the Internet in 1996. NCC-CIS in Japanese is modeled on the Physician Data Query service produced by the National Cancer Institute in the United States and is produced from an independent standpoint adopted to the medical and social environment in Japan. NCC-CIS provides up-to-date cancer treatment information (staging, prognosis and state-of-the-art treatment by stage of disease), supportive care for each type of cancer, an image reference database, and a directory of organizations and lecture meeting reports in Japan in order to facilitate better understanding of cancer among people and support the decision-making process for physicians in order to achieve a reduction in cancer deaths.