Kohei Shitara from the National Cancer Center Japan on ‘Highly Cited Researchers 2025.’

November 19, 2025
In Japanese

Kohei Shitara of Hospital East were listed on ‘Highly Cited Researchers 2025’ as the most frequently cited researchers in their respective fields, announced by Clarivate on November 12, 2025.

‘Highly Cited Researchers’ are those whose work are cited particularly frequently, considered the top one percent in their specific fields. 6,868 researchers from 61 countries and regions have been recognized this year.

Reference: Highly Cited Researchers--Clarivate (link to external site)

Kohei Shitara 

Kohei Shitara

Award Category: Clinical Medicine

Chief - Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Hospital East
Staff physician - Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Hospital East
Staff physician - Division of Experimental Therapeutics (Kashiwa), Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center (EPOC)

Dr. Shitara has been actively engaged in clinical research for the development of novel therapies for gastrointestinal cancers. In particular, he has reported the results of pivotal clinical trials of new agents for gastric cancer in The New England Journal of Medicine　（NEJM）, The Lancet, Nature, Nature Medicine, Lancet Oncology, etc. as the first author or corresponding author, and these resulted in the approval of four new drugs (trastuzumab deruxtecan, nivolumab, FTD/TPI, and zolbetuximab) for gastric cancer. In 2025, he reported primary results from global phase 3 trial of trastuzumab deruxtecan for HER2 positive gastric cancer in NEJM (DESTINY-Gastric 04 study). In also, he published primary results of LEAP-15 trial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology which was conducted based on prior investigator-initiated trial. As an international coordinating investigator, he leads more than 10 global clinical trials exploring novel treatments for gastric cancer. In addition, he has spearheaded numerous investigator-initiated studies, including first-in-human trials and innovative combination therapies, as well as translational research in collaboration with both domestic and international collaborators.