President address

The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Metastatic Research
President Hitoshi Yoshiji
Professor and Chairman Department of Gastroenterology
Nara Medical University

I am pleased to announce that the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Cancer Metastasis will be held at Nara City on June 27 and 28, 2023. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the board members and all the people involved for giving us the opportunity to hold the annual meeting of the society in Nara for the first time. I have been studying angiogenesis in tumors at the NIH/NCI in the United States for three years and after coming back to Japan, I have learned that prominent doctors are conducting cutting-edge research on angiogenesis in Japan in this meeting. Since then, I have learned a lot about the nature of research that links the basic and clinical aspects of cancer metastasis as well as angiogenesis. The Japanese Association for Cancer Metastasis is attended not only by clinical and basic physicians but also by many researchers in other fields, such as pharmacology. In my field of specialty, liver cancer, a new paradigm shift is taking place as the combination of an angiogenesis inhibitor and an immune checkpoint inhibitor has shown unprecedented anti-tumor effects and significantly prolonged the survival period. On the other hand, there are still many issues to be resolved in the control of cancer metastasis, and the clarification of the metastatic mechanism is an urgent issue to improve the prognosis of patients.
I have chosen the theme of this year’s meeting as “Future Prospects for Cancer Metastasis Research. I hope that this meeting will be an opportunity to explore the direction of future research from the ancient capital of Nara and to feel the breath of new research toward the future that will lead to the improvement of cancer patient’s prognosis.
As for the format of the meeting, I assume that “face-to-face discussion” is very important as one of the objectives of the conference. So, the conference will basically be held on-site as of 2023.
The venue is located at the foot of Mt. Wakakusa in Nara Park, where wild deer (deer have been considered messengers of the gods in Nara since ancient times) are around the park, and the speaker will present their data on a “Noh-stage”. There are many sightseeing spots such as Todaiji Temple and Kofukuji Temple within walking distance, and Yakushiji Temple and Toshodaiji Temple can be reached within 30 minutes. Nara City is only 30 minutes from Kyoto or Osaka by Kintetsu train or 50 minutes from Itami Airport by airport bus.
Please note that the second day of the conference overlaps with a related conference. We will ask you the date you wish to make your presentation when you register your abstract, and we sincerely look forward to receiving many abstract submissions and participating in the conference so that we can send a message from Nara, the first capital of Japan, toward the future in the new era.