Investigational Drug Development for Solid Tumors

Introduction

In daily medical practice at the Division of Oncology and Hematology, patients with different types of cancer, including those with breast and genitourinary tract cancers and malignant lymphoma, are treated with standard chemotherapy and/or managed in clinical trials. Cancer of unknown primary is another major target, and gynecological malignancies and soft tissue sarcomas are also treated by chemotherapy.
The clinical and research activities of the Division primarily focus on the following fields:

  1. Developmental therapeutics of new anticancer agents sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.
  2. Development of combination chemotherapy involving newly developed drugs or new combinations of currently available drugs.
  3. Disease-oriented clinical trials, particularly for breast cancer and hematological malignancies.
  4. High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation in experimental or standard treatment regimens.
  5. Standard chemotherapeutic treatment in medical practice.

Routine activities

The major and specific target diseases of the Division included breast cancer and malignant lymphomas. Eligible patients with these cancers were invited to participate in large phase II/III studies. Presently, the number of patients with cancers of the genitourinary tract and cancer of unknown primary is increasing. Soft tissue sarcomas and gynecological cancers including uterine and ovarian cancers were also treated at the Division. For patients with diseases treated with established standard chemotherapeutic regimens, standard chemotherapy was administered in routine medical practice. Patients in whom standard chemotherapy had failed and those with cancers for which standard chemotherapy was not available were invited to participate in clinical studies on experimental drugs and regimens.
In 2008, about 400 patients with different types of cancer per month received routine chemotherapy, which is provided as an outpatient service by the Division. The overall inpatient care system of the Division comprises management of both oncology and hematology teams, in which a monthly rotating attending physician is responsible for all inpatient care and education of the residents.
Morning case conferences on inpatient care are held on Mondays and Thursdays and a weekly case conference on new patients visiting the clinics at the Division is held on Thursday evenings. On Wednesday evenings, a biweekly joint conference is held with breast surgeons and a monthly urological conference is conducted on Monday evenings with urologists. Moreover, there are also morning journal clubs on Wednesdays and Fridays at the Division of Oncology and Hematology.

● K. Itoh ●

Number of New Patients in 2008
Diagnosis Number of patients
Breast cancer 184
Hematological Malignancies 242
Genitourinary cancers 132
Gynecological cancers 20
Cancer of unknown primary 28
Others 56
Total 662

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