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 then designated as a National Research and Development Agency in April 2015. Since then, there has been more demand than ever to promote research and development and to maximize results. To meet such demand, the NCCRI has been collaborating closely with the NCC Hospital (NCCH), NCC Hospital East (NCCHE), the Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center (EPOC), the Center for Public Health Sciences, and the Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, and thereby has tried to maximize the transition ?from bench to bedside?.
In addition to 18 divisions and two independent research units, the NCCRI also contains the Fundamental Innovative Oncology Core (FIOC) that is a core facility for the entire NCC. The FIOC consists of 15 departments, and it runs the NCC BioBank, provides specialized techniques, and also facilitates collaborative works with various private sectors outside the NCC. As of March 2018, the NCCRI has 76 research staff, 85 postdoctoral fellows, and 132 graduate students / supporting staff, all of whom are dedicated to a wide range of cancer research including mechanism of carcinogenesis, prevention of cancer, elucidating the inter- or intra-tumor heterogeneity, identification of therapeutic targets, and preclinical studies for novel anti-cancer reagents, based on the advanced technologies and approaches.
Outstanding achievements in 2017 in the NCCRI include the followings:
1) Discovery of the resistant mechanism for vandetanib in RET-fusion-positive lung cancer
2) Development of the high-throughput method to evaluate functions of gene variants of unknown significance in cancer
3) Identification of etiologically distinct subtypes of cholangiocarcinoma based on whole-genome and epigenomic landscapes
4) Report of a remarkably effective case in the first-in-human clinical trial with inhibitor against IDH1 mutants
In collaboration with the NCCH and NCCHE, the NCCRI has started 1) Rainbow Cloud project to promptly analyze samples of clinically specific cases such as super-responder, 2) Immuno-Genome Atlas project to investigate molecular bases of the immunological tumor microenvironment, 3) J-PDX Library project to promote the screening of anti-cancer drug candidates, 4) Tsukiji TR Board, which is a novel framework of TR promotion between hospitals and the NCCRI in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. In addition, the NCCRI is making preparations to establish Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics.
The NCCRI also actively participates in, and leads worldwide cancer research collaborations including the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC). We are also collaborating with the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the United States.
As described above, through enhancing high-quality research and the interaction with other institutes, the NCCRI is eagerly generating novel modalities to prevent and conquer cancer.
Hiroyuki Mano, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
National Cancer Center Research Institute