The president's greetings
President: Takashi Nakano, M.D. Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine
Director, Gunma University Heavy Ion Medical Center
It is a great honor for me to hold the 28th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology (JASTRO) from November 19th to 21st in 2015 at the Beisia culture hall and Maebashi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Maebashi, Gunma. It is also a pleasure for our department and Gunma University to hold this meeting in home town of Gunma. The remarkable progress of radiation therapy in recent years makes radiation therapy more important as a definitive treatment in multidisciplinary cancer therapy. In these circumstances, Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology which is a main Japanese organization for radiation therapy, became one of the 3 main cancer societies and grew up to have over 3,000 members with increasing rapidly year by year. We have been cooperating with other international societies, such as The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO). We also hold the trilateral symposium among three countries (Japan, China and Republic of Korea) in rotation. Furthermore, JASTRO had significantly dedicated to establish the Federation in Asia of Radiation Oncology (FARO) and direct to play an important role in development of Asian radiation oncology. As for technical aspects, the recent progress of radiation therapy has been made mainly due to improvement of dose distribution and physical accuracy through developments of IMRT, SRT, patient body motion tracking devices, and particle beams. On the other hand, radiation biology and "clinical oncology" does not significantly contribute the recent progress enormously. However, considering the rapid development of regenerative medicine such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), and molecularly targeted antitumor immunology such as anticancer peptides, the advanced high-precision radiation therapy need to become integrated and aufheben (sublated) with radiation biology and clinical oncology in the future. Hence, it is important to feedback the results of high-precision radiation therapy to radiation biology research, oncology research and clinical practice as is from bed to bench and back. With the rapid advancement and dissemination of high-precision radiation therapy, including heavy ion therapy, local control of tumors has been achieved relatively easier with less toxicity. Heading toward the ultimate goal of complete cure, we need to combine radiotherapy with other modalities, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, and also to develop the expansive “radiation oncology”, including radiation biology and radiation pathology and radiation physics. Therefore, the main theme of the 28th JASTRO's Meeting, focusing on physical engineering innovation and biological innovation of radiation therapy, was entitled: “Comprehensive Radiation Oncology in High-Precision Radiotherapy Era.” In addition, I hope this meeting gives opportunities in great deal to discuss very important issues on the education and training of medical personnel who involves in radiation therapy. In addition, we provide forums for radiologists and medical physicists, the participants of whom are increasing each year. For foreign participants from the Asia and Oceania region, joint meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Federation in Asia of Radiation Oncology (FARO) are to be planed. We would like to actively attempt of an academic translation of the mutual way from basic to clinic and clinic to basic in this interdisciplinary academic setting with experts, such as radiation oncologists, radiation biologists, radiation physics. We hope that this meeting will be an opportunity to help contribute the upcoming “aufheben” in radiation oncology.