I am pleased to announce that the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association (JCA) will be held at Pacifico Yokohama for three days from September 21 (Thursday) to September 23 (Saturday), 2023. In the past decade, the main mission of JCA “Conquering Cancer Through Basic Research” has been actualized. Advances in cancer research have accelerated drastically, leading to the identification of cancer driver genes and to drugs targeting them, and bringing novel points of view on carcinogenesis. In 2019, Japan officially started “cancer genomic medicine” under the umbrella of the National Health Insurance system, in which therapeutic interventions are optimized based on the genomic profiling of tumors. Many JCA members have played important roles in this process, and it was a highly rewarding endeavor to translate our basic research achievements into clinical oncology.

Progress in cancer research is even faster today. We now know that some cells of seemingly normal tissues may harbor somatic mutations in the genome, and tumor heterogeneity has been more clearly elucidated due to the advance in single-cell analyses. Similarly, the precise interaction of tumor and surrounding cells is continually being elucidated, showing the pro- or anti-tumorigenic function of those cells. The role of RNA splicing anomalies is also attracting a great deal of attention. In Japan, the whole genome sequencing project has been started with the support of AMED, and is expected to reveal genomic profiles of Japanese cancer patients.

Without doubt, we have entered a new era of cancer research in which we must collaborate extensively with parties outside our cancer community to remain internationally competitive. I will therefore try many new programs in the 82nd Annual Meeting. We will, for instance, provide learning opportunities for bioinformatics through the “Bioinformatics Hands-On Series”, and we plan to hold a “Symposium on Drug Seed Discovery” to attract pharmaceutical companies.

We see this time of great change as the biggest opportunity, so set the theme of our Annual Meeting as “Welcome to the New Era”. We look forward to your active participation and working with you to create a new Annual Meeting.