National Cancer Center Hospital

Project Summary

Rare cancers are defined as those that occur in fewer than six cases per 100,000 people. Due to their low incidence rate, they pose significantly greater challenges in diagnosis and treatment compared to more common cancers.
Although the number of patients with each rare cancer is quite low, collectively, the total number of rare cancer patients combined is significant, with roughly one in five cancer patients being diagnosed with a rare cancer.
Because each of these rare cancers is extremely uncommon, treatment options are limited, with only few medical institutions specialized in providing accurate diagnosis and treatment for these patients, making the conduct of clinical trials even more challenging.
The Master Key Project at the National Cancer Center Hospital has brought together a network of academic institutions and industries aiming to seek effective drugs for rare cancers by accumulating a large-scale database of rare cancer patients, for whom information has not been systematically collected until now.
The project simultaneously conducts trials to examine the safety and efficacy of new drugs for rare cancer patients, called clinical trials. Launched in 2017, the project has already collected information from thousands of patients in its database and has conducted dozens of clinical trials.
Funded by pharmaceutical companies, the Master Key Project is developing a sustainable database, though funding shortages can sometimes affect the project's operations. Despite these challenges, through the Master Key Project, we will strive to provide more treatment options to rare cancer patients while contributing to the development of new treatments.