Preface
The National Cancer Center Hospital East (NCCHE) was designated as a "Core Hospital for Cancer Genomic Medicine" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in FY2017 following designations as an "Advanced Treatment Hospital" and a "Core Hospital for Clinical Research" in 2016 and 2015, respectively. These three approvals confirm that the NCCHE has top level qualities/functions either in clinical and research activities in Japan.
In May 2017, the NCCHE launched "The Center for New Surgical and Endoscopic Development for Exploratory Technology (NEXT)", which made an expansion of the Surgical Center, Endoscopy Center, and Pathology laboratory and their functions. With these movements, former sites have been reconstructed for an expansion of the Outpatient Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Engineering and Medical Technology, Clinical Research Coordinating Division, etc., in association with improvements of clinical and 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: 9,914 new referrals, 398.1 for an average number of inpatients per day with 101.1% bed occupation rate, an average of 1,142 outpatients, and the total of 3,382 surgeries and 35,730 iv treatments in FY2017. The Department of Gynecology is to be launched in April 2018, and the Department of Clinical laboratories is going to be fully included in sections of the NCCHE. The NCCHE also pays great efforts for patient support not only physiological but also mental and social care under operation/ management of the Supportive Care Center. These activities include special care for cancer survivors' work under supports from Chiba prefecture local government.
In regard to research activities, the NCCHE launched "Academia-industry Collaboration Office", "Seeds Development Support Section", and "Medical Device Project Management Office" in FY 2017 for promoting innovative drug/device developmental researches. At the second floor of the NEXT building, several academia-industry collaboration rooms were placed to provide an opportunity for new device development idea with investigators from industry/academia. New symposiums for this purpose have already been successfully held with many participants from industry/academia/government investigators. The genome analysis room is also placed in this floor for genome-based precision medicine and cutting-edge translational researches. The clinical/TR support office has been intensively organized in collaboration with the Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center (EPOC) in the Kashiwa Campus, that enables to yield various clinical/translational researches including many investigator-
initiated registration trials counted as the best in Japan. With these efforts, the number of publications has been increasing year by year in association with many publications in the top journals. The NCCHE also conducts the nation-wide genome screening consortium (SCRUM-Japan) in collaboration with 260 hospitals and 17 pharmaceutical companies, in which around 10,000 patients have already been enrolled for this program aiming to genome-matched new agent developmental studies. Founded in 2015, this consortium has become one of the largest group in the world and several investigators have started to lead international collaborations for precision medicine. For immuno-oncology research programs, various academia-industry collaboration studies are also underway in cooperation with more than 10 industries: translational researches with cutting-edge analyses for detailed immune functions are conducted using various fresh biopsy samples. In addition, new drug discovery studies are currently underway. These studies are anticipated to provide new agent/device developments, 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 March 31, 2018