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institutionsInstitution
National Cancer Center Hospital
The National Cancer Center Hospital is Japan's national cancer centre and the leading site for Daiichi Sankyo's DXd ADC trials.
Overview
The National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo is Japan's national cancer centre, a government institution ranked thirteenth in the Newsweek/Statista oncology list, with a sister campus at National Cancer Center Hospital East in Kashiwa. Together they run Japan's largest phase 1 programme and the SCRUM-Japan genomic screening network, and they led the early studies of Daiichi Sankyo's DXd antibody-drug conjugates, including trastuzumab deruxtecan and datopotamab deruxtecan, with Noboru Yamamoto, Ken Kato, Kohei Shitara and Kan Yonemori among their investigators. OnCo links the centre to CIRCULATE-Japan and the GALAXY paper, to SPOTLIGHT, to the Japan Clinical Oncology Group and the PMDA, and to the idea of one multiregional trial without bridging studies. Regulatory divergence between regions is the bottleneck its work most often meets. Its ADC programme is the reason to read on.
Location
Tokyo, JP
Type
government
Website
Newsweek 2026 oncology rank
#13
OnCo score
#20 · 95 points (47 Newsweek + 0 NCI + 48 from 24 linked objects) · ranking
Research output
From OpenAlex, oncology works in the last five years (2022 to 2026, current year in progress); counted on 2026-09-16.
Matched to National Cancer Center Hospital East, including child institutions. 1,599 works · 21,937 citations · 62% open access · 22% clinical trials · 1% reviews.
Oncology works per year
3052022
3292023
3392024
3522025
2742026
Most works
- Takayuki Yoshino210 works
- Kohei Shitara69 works
- Hideaki Bando67 works
- Yoshiaki Nakamura66 works
- Masashi Wakabayashi65 works
- Eiji Oki63 works
- Josep Tabernero62 works
- Masafumi Ikeda61 works
- Masaaki Ito57 works
- Eric Van Cutsem56 works
Most cited
- Phase 1 ADC trials
- SCRUM-Japan
- Proton therapy (East)
Haruhiko Fukuda
Founding director of the JCOG Data Center (National Cancer Center); clinical trial methodologist
Clinical trial methodologyBiostatisticsCooperative group trials
Built the data centre behind the Japan Clinical Oncology Group, the country's main academic trials network.
Hitoshi Katai
Gastric surgeon, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo
Gastric surgeryLaparoscopic gastrectomyJCOG trials
Japanese surgeon who led JCOG0912, the trial that confirmed laparoscopic gastrectomy is not inferior to open surgery for early stomach cancer.
Hitoshi Nakagama
President, National Cancer Center Japan
Cancer research leadershipCancer preventionMolecular carcinogenesis
Leads Japan's national cancer centre, the hub of the country's genomic medicine and early-phase trial programmes.
Kan Yonemori
Chief, Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital
Breast cancerAntibody-drug conjugatesGynaecologic oncology
A breast and gynaecologic oncologist deeply involved in the early trastuzumab deruxtecan studies and in Japanese ADC development.
Ken Kato
Chief, Department of Head and Neck, Esophageal Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo
Oesophageal squamous cell carcinomaImmunotherapyHead and neck cancer
Japanese oncologist who led ATTRACTION-3 and KEYNOTE-590, bringing immunotherapy to oesophageal cancer.
Kohei Shitara
Chief, Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East
Gastric cancerHER2 and Claudin 18.2Immunotherapy
Principal investigator of SPOTLIGHT and DESTINY-Gastric01, two trials that created new drug classes for stomach cancer.
Koichi Goto
Chief, Department of Thoracic Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East
Lung cancerRare oncogenic driversGenomic screening
Leads thoracic oncology at NCC East and the LC-SCRUM-Japan network that connects rare-driver lung cancer patients to trials.
Noboru Yamamoto
Director, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, National Cancer Center Hospital
Phase 1 trialsDrug developmentLung cancer
Runs Japan's largest first-in-human oncology unit, where many Daiichi Sankyo DXd ADCs were first given to patients.
Takashi Kohno
Chief, Division of Genome Biology, National Cancer Center Research Institute
Cancer genomicsLung cancer fusionsGenomic screening networks
Genomics leader behind LC-SCRUM-Japan, the nationwide screening network that finds rare lung cancer drivers for trials.
Takayuki Yoshino
Chief, Department of Gastroenterology and GI Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East; President, Japanese Society of Medical Oncology
Colorectal cancerctDNA and molecular residual diseasePrecision oncology
Leads CIRCULATE-Japan, the largest ctDNA-guided adjuvant programme in colorectal cancer, and the PARADIGM and SCRUM-Japan GI efforts.
Toshihiko Doi
Director, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, National Cancer Center Hospital East
Phase 1 trialsDrug developmentGastrointestinal oncology
Led the first-in-human study of trastuzumab deruxtecan and runs one of Asia's most productive phase 1 units.
Yuichiro Ohe
Director, National Cancer Center Hospital; thoracic oncology
Lung cancerChemotherapyTargeted therapy
Thoracic oncologist who leads NCC Hospital in Tokyo and has been a Japanese principal investigator on a generation of lung cancer trials.
observationalJournal of Clinical Oncology 202447 citations
Trastuzumab deruxtecan in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-expressing biliary tract cancer (HERB; NCCH1805): a multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial
Together with the DESTINY-PanTumor02 biliary cohort this is the evidence behind trastuzumab deruxtecan's tumour-agnostic IHC 3+ label being used in gallbladder cancer; the lung toxicity rate, higher than in breast cancer, is the caution for a population with pre-existing lung and liver compromise.
observationalNature Medicine 2023393 citations
GALAXY: tumour DNA in blood four weeks after bowel cancer surgery predicts relapse tenfold
The blood test stratifies risk far better than stage or pathology. It supports treating ctDNA-positive patients and suggests ctDNA-negative patients gain little from chemotherapy, but because treatment was not randomised the de-escalation claim needs the randomised trials that are now under way.
rctThe Lancet 2023changed practice669 citations
SPOTLIGHT: zolbetuximab, the first Claudin 18.2 antibody, added to chemotherapy in gastric cancer
Patients with newly diagnosed advanced stomach cancer should now have Claudin 18.2 tested alongside HER2, PD-L1 and mismatch repair, because roughly a third will be eligible for zolbetuximab, which adds about three months of median survival. The main practical problem is nausea and vomiting during infusions, which needs aggressive prophylaxis. How to sequence or combine it with immunotherapy in PD-L1-positive tumours is unresolved.
observationalHuman Pathology 202039 citations
Details of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status in 454 cases of biliary tract cancer
The highest gallbladder HER2 rate in the literature comes from whole resected tumours scored generously; biopsy-based trial screening finds fewer. Heterogeneity is the practical warning for pathologists and for why HER2-directed drugs do not work in every positive tumour.
translationalNature Genetics 20151,077 citations
Genomic spectra of biliary tract cancer
The paper that separated the biliary tree into molecular subtypes: FGFR2 and IDH belong to the intrahepatic ducts, while gallbladder cancer carries HER2, ELF3 and an APOBEC signature. Its hypermutated, checkpoint-high poor-prognosis group foreshadowed immunotherapy.
Similar pages
- TrialDESTINY-Gastric04
Shares Kohei Shitara, Daiichi Sankyo, Trastuzumab deruxtecan, Oesophageal cancer.
- Key paperTrastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201) in patients with HER2-expressing metastatic colorectal cancer (DESTINY-CRC01)
Shares Takayuki Yoshino, Daiichi Sankyo, Trastuzumab deruxtecan, Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation.
- TrialDESTINY-Gastric01
Shares Kohei Shitara, Daiichi Sankyo, Trastuzumab deruxtecan, Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer.
- TargetRET
Shares Takashi Kohno, Koichi Goto, Kyushu University Hospital, National Cancer Center Hospital East.
- TrialDESTINY-CRC01
Shares TRIUMPH, Daiichi Sankyo, Trastuzumab deruxtecan, Colorectal cancer.
- InstitutionCancer Institute Hospital of JFCR
Shares Japanese oncology guidelines (JSMO, JSCO and organ societies), Japanese Society of Medical Oncology, Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer.
- PersonYuko Kitagawa
Shares A permanently funded international network for randomised cancer surgery trials, Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG), Oesophageal cancer.
- IdeactDNA-guided adjuvant therapy as the default in stage II-III colon cancer
Shares GALAXY: tumour DNA in blood four weeks after bowel cancer surgery predicts relapse tenfold, CIRCULATE-Japan (GALAXY / VEGA / ALTAIR), Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation, Colorectal cancer.
cancers
technologies
drugs
ApprovedADC
Datopotamab deruxtecan · Datroway
ApprovedADC
Trastuzumab deruxtecan · Enhertu
companies
institutions
trials
roadmaps
ideas
collections
people
bottlenecks
key papers
Details of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status in 454 cases of biliary tract cancerGALAXY: tumour DNA in blood four weeks after bowel cancer surgery predicts relapse tenfoldGenomic spectra of biliary tract cancerSPOTLIGHT: zolbetuximab, the first Claudin 18.2 antibody, added to chemotherapy in gastric cancerTrastuzumab deruxtecan in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-expressing biliary tract cancer (HERB; NCCH1805): a multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial