My name is Hiroji Iwata, from Aichi Cancer Center, and I have the honor to have been appointed Congress President of the 21st Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting. This Annual Meeting will be held from the 22nd to the 24th of February 2024 in the Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, and will be mainly in-person (with some hybrid sessions).

The last time it was held in Nagoya was 15 years ago when the 7th Annual Meeting in 2009. The JSMO is a tumor-agnostic academic society concerned with pharmacologic therapy, and is mainly led by doctors of internal medicine. As a breast specialist, I have been involved in the development of drug therapy for breast cancer for many years and have participated in the JSMO since the days of the research conference that was its predecessor. Following my appointment as a director of the JSMO, as a member of the Scientific Program Committee I was involved in the task of putting together the basic framework for the current Annual Meeting, and amid the increasing segmentation into different specialties of the JSMO, it is thanks to the efforts of the members of all the various subcommittees that we have reached the point where even someone like myself can take on the role of Congress President of the Annual Meeting.

Recent years have seen advances in personalized medicine, both for individual organs and as tumor-agnostic treatments, and immunotherapy has joined surgery, radiotherapy, and pharmacologic therapy as a major treatment category. As the theme of this 21st Annual Meeting, I have chosen “Break the Borders and Beyond: for our patients.” My understanding is that the goal of our research is to help all cancer patients to live wonderful lives. Many of my colleagues are working directly with patients in both fundamental and clinical research. At this Annual Meeting, it is my desire that we will break down all the borders of nationality, status, specialty, profession, treatment modality, and others to engage in conversation and discussion and open new paths to the future before us, as part of one world. What then lies ahead is a bright future, both for cancer patients and for us.

I hope that in the general oral presentations you will present new research results and share the information with many people from around the world. As usual, I also intend to offer a full Advocate Program for patients living with cancer. As presidential events, I am planning a tumor-agnostic program not covered by any of the individual subcommittees, as well as programs in which government bodies, researchers, medical professionals, and patients can together consider topics that must unavoidably be faced in future, such as the aged society of the future, the framework of the cancer treatment system for Japan as a whole, advanced medicine, and the utilization of real-world data. Although the Nagoya Congress Center building is now a little dated, we will offer you the warmest welcome and hospitality. As this is the first Annual Meeting since our exit from the COVID-19 pandemic (with its reclassification as a Class 5 disease), I hope that many overseas participants will also attend in person, and that these three days in Nagoya will have a thoroughly international flavor.

We hope that many doctors and researchers will submit abstracts and come to Nagoya.
Thank you very much for your kind understanding and support.