National Cancer Center, Japan

National Cancer Center, Japan - Division of Functional Imaging, Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center.

At the National Cancer Center, Japan’s leading research center of oncology, the Division of Functional Imaging is dedicated to investigating new imaging techniques to disclose the nature of malignant tumours and to develop epoch-making therapeutic strategies for intractable cancer.

The Division is home to a nuclear medicine laboratory with experimental rooms designed for the synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals including alpha emitter-labelled compounds, as well as animal-rearing chambers, instruments measuring radioactivity, a SPECT/CT scanner dedicated to small animal imaging and much more.

Using these well-equipped facilities, researchers are studying nuclear medicine, from diagnosis to therapy, and collaborating with researchers from other academic institutes and industrial companies. One unique collaboration involves working with space physicists to develop unique clinical radiation detectors with ultra-high resolution and sensitivity. The team is also collaborating with researchers at pharmaceutical companies to reveal the mechanisms of new therapeutic agents used against cancer.

Just next door to the lab is the National Cancer Center’s clinical nuclear medicine facilities, which include a cyclotron. In these facilities, there is a clean room in which the team can synthesize various kinds of radioactive agents including PET tracers conforming to GMP standards. This makes it easy to start clinical trials for new radiopharmaceuticals, allowing the team to bring their research a step closer to beating cancer and saving and improving patients’ lives.