[Now and Future of the ATLAS Project]

The National Cancer Center Hospital in Japan has established the Asia Cancer Clinical Trial Network, otherwise known as the ATLAS project, which began in September 2020 with government support. The goal of the ATLAS project is to foster a robust research platform for international clinical trials in Asia by developing research institutions' network and providing educational opportunities. The ATLAS project also aims to concurrently conduct multiple international clinical trials. Participating countries include not only longstanding collaborators such as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, but also rapidly developing nations such as Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Each country's top-tier research institutions have joined as participating facilities in the ATLAS project. Currently, 5 international clinical trials are ongoing with several more in preparation. While academia lacked an infrastructure to support such a lot of international research previously, the National Cancer Center Hospital has been addressing this by establishing the Department of International Clinical Development in November 2020, and operating the Asian Partnerships Office in Bangkok, Thailand from December 2021. This strategy is aimed at creating an in-house research support function to conduct affordable, swift, and convenient Asian collaborative clinical trials. Furthermore, to increase commitment to ATLAS across Asian countries, an ATLAS board has been established as a decision- making body as the clinical trial group. This mechanism, constructed to make decisions on a pan-Asian basis, is represented by 2 delegates from each country.