CancerX is aiming to cross-fertilize our ideas and to collaborate so that we can bring change, and cross out cancer. X stands for collaboration, change, and cross out.
On February 2, just before World Cancer Day, about 500 people from various fields, including cancer survivors, gathered at the “CancerX Summit 2020” in Tokyo, Japan. The summit aimed to create a society where cancer patients will have hope as well as not get upset and where cancer patients will have hope even after they are diagnosed with cancer.
CancerX General Incorporated Association hosted the CancerX Summit 2020 as a platform to address social issues related to cancer. This year’s theme is “Break the Limits.” We had more than 50 professionals and about 500 participants from a variety of professions and positions, embodying a collective impact toward solving social issues related to cancer. The summit is the largest cancer-related summit
in Japan. It is the 2nd summit since February 2019. Based on the concept of “Break the Limits,” 14 sessions were held, including discussions on how to find high-quality medical information and how to deal with “life and death.”
For each session, we invited such as Kenya Akiha, Deputy Prime Minister and Representative of the House of Representatives, Hidetaka Suzuki, Governor of Mie Prefecture, Masako Akiyama, Co-Representative of Maggie’s Tokyo, Yasuhiro Fujiwara, President of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, a variety of speakers from different positions and genres, including communication director Mr. Naoyuki Sato, to actively share issues and ideas.
CancerX Special Life-What is the meaning of being alive?” session was well received by speakers and participants. Support of the community will increase the options for how to spend high-quality end-of-life time, not just the engagement of the patient, family, and medical providers. Also, Yohei Ohashi, a palliative care physician who is actively getting treated with advanced cancer, said, “Rather than knowing my life expectancy and counting down, I count one day at a time from the day my metastasis was discovered. Today is 301 days.”
The subcommittee has set up a new corporate-sponsored session, with seven themes (AI, Genome, VR, Working, Mobility, Appearance, and Life). Throughout the day, we provided a forum for discussing not only input by the speaker but also the summit participants provided their opinions on cancer medical and social issues. To solve the problem CancerX organization was able to carry out the first actions, such as visualizing the problem and creating a network to address the issue.
February 4 is World Cancer Day. Naoto T. Ueno, MD, PhD, Representative Director as well as a US-based breast medical oncologist, said, “This World Cancer Day theme is” I AM AND I WILL.” Approximately 400 events are taking place around the world, and this event counts as one of them. Expressing who we are and how we act results in becoming a member of the collective impact. It’s exactly the concept of CancerX.”
*1 – Breakdown of visitors: Approximately 500 (breakdown: 32.9% healthcare providers, 21.8% cancer survivors, 16.3% industry, 14.7% of families, 3.3% government-related, 12.7% others). *2 – CancerX: The organization started in 2018 as a new project to start the 1st CancerX Summit in Feburary 2019, and incorporated in October 2019.
CancerX, Cofounder, Representative Director
Naoto T. Ueno (MD, PhD, FACP, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cancer survivor)
Elina Hanzawa (Producer and Aggregator, DENTSU INC.)
CancerX, Director Yuko Okazaki (Potter, Cancer survivor) / Hayato Kume (Deputy Editor, Medical Care Planning Division, Health Policy Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Government of Japan) / Yuta Mishima (Researcher, Center for iPS cell Research and Application, Kyoto University / T-CiRA program Sub-PI)
CancerX, cofounder, foreign correspondent Miho Suzuki (Co-Representative of Maggie’s Tokyo, Cancer survivor) / Makoto Hamamatsu (Cofounder and representative, ONE JAPAN)
Media Contact :
Elina Hanzawa
CancerX, Cofounder, Representative Director
press@cancerx.jp
