Annual Report 2024
Department of Pediatric Oncology
Chitose Ogawa, Ayumu Arakawa, Minako Sugiyama, Kiyotaka Isobe, Eriko Uchida, Natsumi Kikuchi, Bunpei Miyazaki, Risa Yanai, Kohsuke Tamefusa, Kayoko Tao, Nami Shirakawa, Yuki Nogami
Introduction
Pediatric oncology includes a wide variety of malignancies in children and adolescents such as acute leukemia and malignant lymphoma, as well as solid tumors including osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, neuroblastoma, liver tumor and retinoblastoma. With appropriate treatment, many diseases are usually chemo-sensitive and curable with appropriate treatment. The common approach to these diseases is the "risk-adapted therapy" strategy, which considers long-term life expectancy. In the Department of Pediatric Oncology, pediatric patients with malignancies are managed by 8 pediatric oncologists and four residents. Although pediatric oncologists mainly treat and manage patients, we employ a multidisciplinary team approach involving radiation oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, ophthalmologic surgeons and others for the treatment. To ensure treatment completion and optimal quality of hospital life for children, pediatric nurse specialists, teachers, child care staff, psychologists and psychiatrists also join our team. For young patients, educational opportunities ranging from elementary school to high school are available in the pediatric ward, where 10 teachers work daily.
The Team and What We Do
Each year, around 100 new patients come to our department and start treatment. In FY2024, 100 new patients came to our department and 91 patients have started treatment. The number of patients is shown in Table 1. Our daily activity in the pediatric outpatient clinic includes managing new patients, treating patients with chemotherapy or blood transfusion and providing follow-up care for patients who have completed intensive therapy. Patients undergo multidisciplinary therapy, including surgical removal of the tumor, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and sometimes stem cell transplantation, as indicated.
Table 1. Number of patients between April 2024 and March 2025 
A pediatric conference is held every morning, mainly to decide on individual treatment plans. The pediatric staff and trainees discuss various issues regarding pediatric inpatients during the daily rounds. Interdepartmental conferences in cooperation with orthopedics, radiation oncology, and palliative care are individually scheduled every 2 weeks.
In the therapeutic environment during treatment, learning opportunities—including online instruction—are provided through the hospital-based classroom, which accommodates students up to the high school level. In addition, by utilizing the hospital’s extensive internal resources—such as the Consultation Support Center and the Appearance Support Center—as well as various medical and social services, and through collaboration with nearby primary and secondary medical facilities, the program creates an environment that respects children’s rights and enables them to continue participating in the communities where they lived prior to the onset of illness.
Research Activities
1. For newly diagnosed patients, we participate in several multicenter studies conducted by the Japan Children’s Cancer Group (JCCG), including those by the Japan Ewing Sarcoma Study Group (JESS), Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group (JRSG) and Japanese Pediatric Leukemia/Lymphoma Study Group (JPLSG).
2. For patients who relapsed, we are actively involved in the development of new drugs and treatments, including off-label and unapproved medications.
3. For individualized treatment, we work continuously to provide investigator-initiated registration trials, and have continued two new clinical trials for patient-requested treatment to use off-label drugs following the recommendation by the Genomic Profiling Testing.
4. For the recuperation environment, we aim to provide support so that patients undergoing treatment can live in the same community as they did before the onset of the disease by using appropriate medical and social resources.
Clinical Trials
In 2024, we have conducted many clinical trials, including early phase trials, an international study and cooperative studies. Among them, 7 trials were investigator-initiated, registration-directed clinical trials conducted under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law in Japan. Two trials are clinical trials conducted under the patient-proposed healthcare service system for off-label or non-approved drugs.
Education
We provide personnel training and education for the diagnosis and management of pediatric hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Residents also learn skills to treat not only newly diagnosed patients but also patients who relapsed or were refractory to treatments through the global standard of therapy. In addition, senior residents acquire the ability to plan studies for new agents and therapies, which we regard as an important role of this center.
Future Prospects
We will promote the development of therapies for pediatric malignancies as a top priority. For this mission, we will plan clinical or registration trials in cooperation with domestic and international centers as a core institution in Japan. In particular, for the cure and improvement of QOL of pediatric cancer patients, we promote clinical trials of molecularly targeted drugs for pediatric cancer based on genomic information to provide personalized medicine.
List of papers published in 2024
Journal
1. Kato I, Tomizawa D, Kato M, Hirabayashi S, Manabe A, Irie M, Sasahara Y, Arakawa Y, Koh K, Sakaguchi H, Sugiyama M, Ogawa C, Kamiya T, Saito S, Nakazawa Y, Nishio N, Takahashi Y, Iwai N, Adachi S, Takita J, Miyamura T, Yokoyama S, Oba U, Ueda T, Koga Y, Hiramatsu H. Real-world Outcomes of Commercial Tisagenlecleucel for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Japan. Transplantation and cellular therapy, 31:86-96, 2025
2. DuBois SG, Ogawa C, Moreno L, Mossé YP, Fischer M, Ryan AL, Vo KT, De Wilde B, Rubio-San-Simon A, Macy ME, Howell L, Shusterman S, Corradini N, Luksch R, Aerts I, Foster JH, Weiss BD, Karthik CP, Yuen E, Avsar E, Park JR, Marachelian A. A phase 1 dose-escalation study of LY3295668 erbumine as monotherapy and in combination with topotecan and cyclophosphamide in children with relapsed/refractory neuroblastoma. Cancer, 131:e35751, 2025
3. Asano T, Morimoto A, Nakazawa A, Ueda T, Ogawa C, Sakata N, Sugimoto K, On J, Takahashi Y, Otsuki N, Taneyama Y, Hyakuna N, Ishihara T, Matsumine A, Shioda Y, Sakamoto K, Nakazawa Y, Yasumi T, Doi T, Koga Y. Retrospective nationwide survey of pediatric RDD in Japan: a high prevalence of mutations in the kinase pathway genes. International journal of hematology, 2025
4. Arakawa A, Sugiyama M, Uchida E, Miyazaki B, Tao K, Isobe K, Kaneda T, Kashima J, Yatabe Y, Tsuruoka H, Ogawa C. Successful Multidisciplinary Treatment of Tracheal Lymphoepithelial Carcinoma in an Adolescent Patient. Pediatric blood & cancer, 72:e31662, 2025
5. Inamoto Y, Ito A, Nakashima T, Usui A, Takeda W, Tanaka T, Kim SW, Kitano S, Watanabe K, Kusaba K, Aruga Y, Ikeda C, Kojima M, Maezawa N, Matsui H, Hashimoto H, Ogawa C, Fukuda T. Oral beclomethasone dipropionate therapy and prognostic plasma biomarkers for gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease. International journal of hematology, 2025
6. Koh K, Kosaka Y, Okamoto Y, Maeda N, Ogawa A, Kobayashi R, Hasegawa D, Koga N, Tessier A, Shvenke Y, Zhu J, Benettaib B, Horibe K, Ogawa C. Phase 2 multicenter study of pegaspargase in Japanese patients with previously untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia. International journal of hematology, 2025
7. Wada S, Nakano E, Nakajima M, Kishikawa S, Yoshida A, Mori T, Osada A, Ogata D, Namikawa K, Yamazaki N. Congenital dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans on the scalp enlarging and shrinking repeatedly. The Journal of dermatology, 51:e196-e197, 2024
8. Kubo T, Sunami K, Koyama T, Kitami M, Fujiwara Y, Kondo S, Yonemori K, Noguchi E, Morizane C, Goto Y, Maejima A, Iwasa S, Hamaguchi T, Kawai A, Namikawa K, Arakawa A, Sugiyama M, Ohno M, Yoshida T, Hiraoka N, Yoshida A, Yoshida M, Nishino T, Furukawa E, Narushima D, Nagai M, Kato M, Ichikawa H, Fujiwara Y, Kohno T, Yamamoto N. The impact of rare cancer and early-line treatments on the benefit of comprehensive genome profiling-based precision oncology. ESMO open, 9:102981, 2024
9. Watanabe Y, Chen YW, Igaki H, Arakawa A, Tao K, Sugiyama M, Nakajima M, Shirakawa N, Yanagisawa S, Miyakita Y, Yoshida A, Isohashi K, Ono K, Narita Y, Ogawa C. Boron neutron capture therapy prolongs survival in a patient with a recurrent malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor-A case report. Pediatric blood & cancer, 71:e31011, 2024
10. Sugiyama M, Arakawa A, Iwata S, Tao K, Shirakawa N, Watanabe Y, Nakajima M, Yoshida A, Ishigaki K, Kawai A, Ogawa C. Feasibility of multimodal therapy for rhabdomyosarcoma in a patient with Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy. Pediatric blood & cancer, 71:e31036, 2024
11. Kanezawa K, Yagasaki H, Arakawa A, Hoshi R, Uehara S, Morioka I. Malignant melanoma in a 12-year-old boy 17 months after completing hepatoblastoma treatment. Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.), 7:e2118, 2024
12. Ogura K, Morizane C, Satake T, Iwata S, Toda Y, Muramatsu S, Kobayashi E, Arakawa A, Ogawa C, Kato Y, Higashi T, Kawai A. Statistics of bone sarcoma in Japan: report from the population-based cancer registry in Japan. International journal of clinical oncology, 29:1209-1219, 2024
13. Kawaguchi Y, Watanabe Y, Miyakita Y, Ohno M, Ogawa C, Takahashi M, Yanagisawa S, Mukai T, Igaki H, Sugino H, Yoshida A, Narita Y. Successful treatment of pediatric patients with high-grade gliomas featuring leptomeningeal metastases by targeting BRAF V600E mutations with dabrafenib plus trametinib: two illustrative cases. International cancer conference journal, 13:256-262, 2024
14. Koretsune Y, Sugawara S, Sone M, Higashihara H, Arakawa A, Ogawa C, Kusumoto M, Tomiyama N. Inversion of Central Venous Ports in Children Under Six Years Old: A Retrospective Analysis of 154 Oncology Patients. Cureus, 16:e63106, 2024
15. Uchihara Y, Umeda K, Yamada Y, Ito H, Tasaka K, Isobe K, Akazawa R, Kawabata N, Saida S, Kato I, Hiramatsu H, Noguchi T, Sakamoto A, Arakawa Y, Arakawa A, Yamamoto N, Hosoya Y, Uemura S, Watanabe KI, Sano H, Taga T, Takita J. MGMT protein expression is a reliable predictive biomarker for temozolomide-containing chemotherapy in osteosarcoma. Cancer science, 115:3394-3402, 2024
16. Saeki I, Ida K, Kurihara S, Watanabe K, Mori M, Hishiki T, Yokoi A, Fujimura J, Honda S, Nogami Y, Iehara T, Kazama T, Sekiguchi M, Kitagawa N, Matsumura R, Nomura M, Yamada Y, Hanaki R, Kaneda H, Takama Y, Inoue T, Tanaka Y, Miyazaki O, Nagase H, Takimoto T, Yoshimura K, Hiyama E. Successful treatment of young childhood standard-risk hepatoblastoma with cisplatin monotherapy using a central review system. Pediatric blood & cancer, 71:e31255, 2024
17. Tsuchiya T, Ohno M, Watanabe Y, Fujita S, Miyazaki B, Sugino H, Igaki H, Yoshida A, Takahashi M, Yanagisawa S, Osawa S, Ogawa C, Narita Y. Pediatric atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor in the cauda equina with rapid tumor progression: illustrative case. Journal of neurosurgery. Case lessons, 8:CASE24219, 2024
18. Goto H, Kada A, Ogawa C, Nishiuchi R, Yamanaka J, Iguchi A, Nishi M, Sakaguchi K, Kumamoto T, Mochizuki S, Ueki H, Kosaka Y, Saito AM, Toyoda H. Treatment of relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children: an observational study of the Japan Children's Cancer Group. International journal of hematology, 120:631-638, 2024
19. Yamanaka J, Ogawa C, Arakawa A, Deguchi T, Hori T, Kiyokawa N, Ueki H, Nishi M, Mochizuki S, Nishikawa T, Kumamoto T, Nishiuchi R, Kikuta A, Yamamoto S, Koh K, Hasegawa D, Ogawa A, Watanabe K, Sato A, Saito AM, Watanabe T, Manabe A, Horibe K, Goto H, Toyoda H. Outcomes in children with first-relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Japan: Results from JCCG Study JPLSG-ALL-R08. Pediatric blood & cancer, 71:e31319, 2024
20. Sato C, Sugiyama M, Mori T, Nishino S, Tao K, Ogawa C, Yoshida A. Pediatric Mesenchymal Tumor With MN1::TAF3 Fusion. Genes, chromosomes & cancer, 63:e70009, 2024
21. Nakajima M, Arakawa A, Ogawa C. Japan’s contribution to an ongoing global pediatric cancer clinical trial:The experience of the National Cancer Center Hospital (NCCH) in Tokyo. EJC Pediatric Oncology, 3:100157, 2024
Book
1. Nakajima M, Cheung N. Re-engaging the immune system: Immunotherapy for neuroblastoma. In: Asgharzadeh S, Westermann F (ed), Neuroblastoma, Switzerland, Springer Cham, pp 181-196, 2024