Annual Report 2023

Department of Pediatric Surgery

Akihiro Yoneda, Junkichi Takemoto

Introduction

 The Department of Pediatric Surgery was established in April 2016 to provide surgical treatment for pediatric cancers. Our team specializes in surgeries for a wide variety of tumors, including neuroblastoma, nephroblastoma (renal tumors), hepatoblastoma (liver tumors), Ewing sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, germ cell tumor, metastatic lung tumor and all other types of tumors arising in children and adolescents.

The Team and What We Do

 Our department's outpatient service treats newly diagnosed patients and provides follow-up treatment for patients who have received surgery. Weekly conferences are held with pediatric oncologists from the Department of Pediatric Oncology.

 We specialize in performing surgical operations on infants and small children, but we also care for adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients in collaboration with expert surgeons on our adult team.

Research Activities

 Our staff members play key roles in nationwide collaborative studies. We also are involved in translational research activities on immunotherapy for neuroblastoma and other solid tumors.

Clinical Trials

 We play a leading role in clinical trials conducted by the Japanese Childhood Cancer Group (JCCG), with a particular interest in neuroblastoma.

Education

 We are accepting trainees and students worldwide and nationwide.

Future Prospects

 Pediatric cancers treated by surgery alone are rare. To treat such diseases, multidisciplinary treatment combined with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy is often needed. We collaborate with the Department of Pediatric Oncology and other related departments and provide advanced treatment for pediatric and AYA patients with cancer.