Development of cancer cooperative groups in Japan

Investigator-initiated clinical trials are essential for improving the standard of care for cancer patients, because pharmaceutical companies do not conduct trials that evaluate combination chemotherapy using drugs from different companies, surgery, radiotherapy or multimodal treatments. Government-sponsored cooperative groups have played a vital role in developing cancer therapeutics since the 1950s in the USA; however, the establishment of these groups in Japan did not take place until 30 years later. Methodological standards for multicenter cancer clinical trials were established in the 1980s by the National Cancer Institute and cooperative groups. The Japan Clinical Oncology Group, one of the largest cooperative groups in the country, was instituted in 1990. Its data center and operations office, formed during the 1990s, applied the standard methods of US cooperative groups. At present, the Japan Clinical Oncology Group consists of 14 subgroups, a Data Center, an Operations Office, nine standing committees and an Executive Committee represented by the Japan Clinical Oncology Group Chair. Quality control and quality assurance at the Japan Clinical Oncology Group, including regular central monitoring, statistical methods, interim analyses, adverse event reporting and site visit audit, have complied with international standards. Other cooperative groups have also been established in Japan since the 1980s; however, nobody figures out all of them. A project involving the restructuring of US cooperative groups has been ongoing since 2005. Learning from the success of this project will permit further progress of the cancer clinical trials enterprise in Japan.