Tokyo Women's Medical University

Graduate School of Medical Science

Radiation Oncology

About us

Radiation oncology is a field of treating cancer using radiation, and has a 120-year history since attempts to use radiation to cure diseases began a year after Dr. Röntgen's discovery of radiation in 1895.
Cancer is the leading cause of death among Japanese people and the number of patients will still increase with advancement of aging society. Radiotherapy is characterized by its low invasiveness, low patient burden, good functional preservation, ability to treat lesions that are difficult to treat with surgery, and high quality of life (QOL) after treatment. Therefore, the role of radiation therapy will increase as the super-aging society progresses.
New technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic radiotherapy (STI), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), and particle therapy (e.g. proton therapy and carbon-ion therapy) are now widely used and have been enabled highly precise irradiation to the tumor with less irradiation to normal tissues. Technological advances in these high-precision radiotherapy are still in the developing stage, and further progress is highly anticipated.
Providing the best medical care is the founding spirit of our university. Our department has more than 70 years history of radiation oncology research, Professor Tasaki, our second chief professor, was the first president of Japanese Society of Radiation Oncology (JASTRO), and the first annual meeting of JASTRO was held at Yayoi Memorial Hall of our university in 1989, large number of clinical data has been accumulated for clinical study.
The aim of our department is to develop outstanding researchers, clinicians and educators. Our department has experts in clinical radiation oncology, medical physics, and radiation biology and also has a strong joint research system with researchers of National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST).
We accept a wide range of graduate students not only physicians but also those with backgrounds in science, engineering, and radiological technology to conduct a wide range of clinical research and R&D.

Research

1. Clinical oncology
Usefulness of hypofractionated whole breast irradiation for early breast cancer
Research for carbon-ion radiotherapy for early breast cancer
Development of multidisciplinary treatment for refractory tumors
Clinical utility of high-precision radiotherapy by high energy X-ray
Optimization of intensity modulated radiation therapy for prostate cancer
Optimization of intensity modulated radiation therapy for brain tumor
Optimization of stereotactic irradiation for early lung cancer
Optimal postoperative irradiation method for breast cancer

2. Medical physics
Research for development of ultra-compact proton therapy system
Research and development for visualizing the irradiated area beam and tumor response for proton therapy
Study to improve the accuracy of particle therapy using AI-technologies and multi-modality imaging
Development of a dose verification system for 4-dimensional proton therapy

3. Radiation biology
Chemical modification of carbon-ion radio-sensitivity for breast cancer
Search of radio-sensitivity modifier on X-ray and charged particle radiotherapy
Development mechanism of late radiation reaction

Faculty

・Professor and Chair: Kumiko Karasawa, MD, PhD
・Associate Professor: Yaichiro Hashimoto, MD, PhD
・Assistant Professor: Takayuki Kanai, PhD
・Assistant Professor: Shigehiko Kuribayashi, MD, PhD
・Assistant Professor: Sawa Kono, MD
・Assistant Professor: Miki Tsujii, MD, PhD
・Assistant Professor: Kenta Ohmatsu, MD
・Part-time Lecturer: Yuichiro Narita, PhD
・Part-time Lecturer: Masashi Koto, MD, PhD
・Part-time Lecturer: Mayumi Fujita, PhD

Related links

Research Achievements Database

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