This Series on “Multimodal Approach and Clinical Application for Esophageal Cancer” is edited by Dr. Ken Kato from Department of Head and Neck, Esophageal Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Ken Kato
Department of Head and Neck, Esophageal Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Prof. Kato is a medical oncologist and chief of the Department of Head and Neck, and Esophageal Medical Oncology, and Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, 2020-2023, and chief, Biobank Translational Research Support Section, Clinical Research Coordinating Section, Clinical Research Support Office, National Cancer Center Hospital. His primary interest is chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy for oesophageal, esophagogastric, and gastric cancer. He is a group coordinator of the Japan Esophageal Oncology Group of JCOG, the most significant clinical trial group for cancer in Japan.

His group has conducted clinical trials to develop new chemotherapy for metastatic disease and early oesophageal cancer in multimodality therapy. As a study coordinator, he conducted the randomized phase III trial, which compared the surgery and chemoradiotherapy for clinical stage I oesophageal squamous carcinoma, named JCOG0502, which reported the non-inferiority of chemoradiotherapy to surgery. The randomized phase III trial of neoadjuvant therapy for resectable oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, named JCOG1109, showed superior survival of triplet-chemotherapy over doublet-chemotherapy. This trial gave a new aspect to neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer.

To develop new drugs, such as immune-checkpoint inhibitors, he committed to the international phase III trial of oesophageal cancer as a steering committee member, for example, ATTRACTION-3 KEYNOTE-590, CheckMate-648, RATIONALE-306, and others.

He is a director of the Japan Esophageal Society (JES) and the International Society of Disease of Esophagus (ISDE). He is committed to international conferences in Asia and public relations activity.

Series outline:

1. Introductory preface for the special series
2. Translational insights from the tumor microenvironment toward optimizing immunotherapy
3. ctDNA for early stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
4. Developing mouse models and investigating new immunotherapy combination for ESCC
5. The role of radiotherapy for the immunotherapy of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ~ translational approach
6. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemoradiotherapy for ESCC
7. Application of immune checkpoint inhibitor for ESCC
8. Novel Clinical Applications of High-Sensitivity Troponin
9. Oligometastatic disease of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ~ definition and treatment
10. Conversion surgery after immunochemotherapy for ESCC
11. Risk factors for FN, mucositis and esophagitis of combination chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil for esophageal cancer
12. Therapeutic approach for locally advanced unresectable ESCC

Disclosure:
The series “Multimodal Approach and Clinical Application for Esophageal Cancer” was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Esophagus without any sponsorship or funding. Ken Kato serving as the unpaid Guest Editor for the series.