Message from the representative

ARCAD Asia is aimed at sharing and utilizing data on past clinical trials carried out by pharmaceutical companies and academia research groups in order to enable more efficient development of new cancer drugs, a better understanding of pathological conditions, and creation of evidence and obtain better treatments for patients more quickly.

Data Sharing is an initiative that has been widely promoted in recent years in and outside the field of healthcare with the goal of advancing science effectively and thereby realizing innovation. In Europe and the United States, the ARCAD (Aide et Recherche en Cancérologie Digestive) project was initiated to share cancer clinical trial data, leading to the current environment that makes it possible to utilize high-quality data collected from tens of thousands of patients. The ARCAD project enables to produce a broad range of international achievements that were impossible with single clinical trials, such as verifications of surrogate endpoints, analyses on special patient subgroups, reconstruction of prognostic factors including proposals for new disease stage classification systems.

With the mission of building a scientific foundation to share data in Japan and contribute to improving cancer treatment outcomes, National Cancer Center Hospital East launched ARCAD Asia, a scheme that coordinates with the ARCAD project and makes it possible to utilize clinical trial data from other Asian countries. ARCAD Asia coordinates closely with the ARCAD-Global, stimulates drug development in Europe, the United States and Asia, and is also expected to contribute to promoting international harmonization.

We hope that promoting this project will provide more optimal cancer treatments promptly to patients, their families.