Preface

The National Cancer Center Hospital East (NCCHE) was firstly selected in Japan as an "Advanced Treatment Hospital" under newly designated and rigorous conditions by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in FY2016, following the designation as a "Core Hospital for Clinical Research" in 2015. These two designations confirm that the NCCHE has top level qualities/functions either in clinical and/or research activities.

As seen in recent years, the number of patients referred to our hospital has been increasing year by year with updated records in the NCCHE: 8,048 new referrals, 394.4 for an average number of inpatients per day with 100.2% bed occupation rate, and an average of 1,121 outpatients in FY2016. In May 2017, the NCCHE will launch "The Center of New Surgical and Endoscopic Development for Exploratory Technology (NEXT)", which aims to expand surgical and endoscopic activities in clinical/research areas. At the second floor of the NEXT, several academia-industry collaboration rooms provide an opportunity for new device development ideas with investigators from the industry/academia. Several symposiums and seminars are already under planning and a large number of participants from industry/academia investigators is expected. The Genome analysis room will also be placed on this floor for genome-based precision medicine and cutting-edge translational researches. The site surgical/endoscopic rooms left in the hospital main building will be available in early 2018 for expanding Outpatient Treatment Center, Clinical Research Coordinating Section, and Department of Clinical Engineering and Medical Technology, which are anticipated to intensify clinical/research activities of the NCCHE.

In research activities, clinical/TR support office has been intensively organized in collaboration with "The Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center (EPOC)" in the Kashiwa campus following the designation as a "Core Hospital for Clinical Research" in 2015. With these intensified support teams, many clinical and translational researches particularly investigator-initiated registration trials counted as the best in Japan have already been conducted which resulted in a remarkable increase in the number of publications associated with quality improvement. The NCCHE started the nation-wide genome screening consortium (SCRUM-Japan) in collaboration with 240 hospitals and 15 pharmaceutical companies since 2015, in which more than 5,000 patients have already been enrolled for this program aiming for genome-matched new agent developmental studies. This consortium has become one of the largest group in the world and is anticipated to lead international collaborations for precision medicine. For immuno-oncology researches, various academia-industry collaboration studies are also underway in collaboration with more than 10 industries: translational researches with cutting-edge analyses for detailed immune function are conducted using various fresh biopsy samples. With matured infrastructure for clinical/translational researches in the NCCHE, these studies are anticipated to provide high-impacted data for top journals, which may achieve our two missions "To provide the best cancer medicine in the world" and "To develop a world-class innovative cancer medicine".

Atsushi Ohtsu, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
National Cancer Center Hospital East
As of December 31, 2016