Annual Report 2022
preface
The National Cancer Center Research Institute (NCCRI) was established in 1962 as one of the main parts of the National Cancer Center (NCC), and has been driving cancer research in Japan ever since. The NCC was designated a National Research and Development Agency in April 2015. Since then, there has been greater demand than ever to promote research and development and to maximize clinical outputs. To meet this demand, the NCCRI has been collaborating closely with the NCC Hospital, Hospital East, the Institute for Cancer Control, the Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center, the Center for Promotion of Translational Research, and the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics, and has thereby sought to maximize the transition “from bench to bedside”.
At present, in addition to 20 Divisions and 8 independent Research Units, the NCCRI also contains the Fundamental Innovative Oncology Center (FIOC), which is a core facility for the entire NCC. The FIOC consists of 10 Departments, and it runs the NCC BioBank, prepares bioresources including patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), provides specialized techniques, and also facilitates collaborative work with multiple private sector organizations outside the NCC. As of March 2023, the NCCRI has 86 research staff, 55 postdoctoral fellows and 203 graduate students/supporting staff, all of whom are dedicated to a wide range of cancer research including prevention of cancer based on identification of cancer-initiating cells and carcinogenic mechanisms, elucidating the inter- or intra-tumor heterogeneity and in vivo network mechanisms, elucidating molecular basis of immune tumor microenvironment, identification of diagnostic and therapeutic targets, development of novel anti-cancer strategies and medical AI research and development.
Outstanding achievements in 2022 in the NCCRI include the following:
(1) Discovery of origin and carcinogenesis mechanism in pediatric brain tumor
(2) Identification of treatment targets for Japanese patients with gastric cancer based on world’s largest gastric cancer genomic study
(3) Functional studies of fusion oncogenes as drug resistance mechanism in EGFR mutant lung cancer
(4) Systematic identification of intron retention associated variants from massive publicly available transcriptome sequencing data
In collaboration with the NCC hospitals, the NCCRI has established the J-PDX library, which contains more than 590 PDXs from clinical specimens, and has promoted collaborative studies with industry and academia using the library. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics, the NCCRI is supporting cancer genomic medicine in Japan, and is constructing a system for clinical application and utilization of whole genome analyses with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and AMED.
The NCCRI also actively participates in and leads worldwide cancer research collaborations including the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and International Cancer Proteogenome Consortium (ICPC). Furthermore, the NCCRI has continued collaborative research to elucidate the carcinogenic mechanisms of various cancers with The Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRAC, WHO). In addition, the NCCRI began the government's flagship Moonshot Research and Development Program “Actualization of a cancer-free society through regulation of chronic inflammation” by a consortium of seven Japanese and three US research organizations.
As described above, through enhancing high-quality research and interaction with many domestic and foreign institutes, the NCCRI is actively generating novel modalities to prevent and conquer cancer.
Hiroyuki Mano, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Cancer Center Research Institute