大学、大学院を通じて、
腫瘍内科としてのアイデンティティを
持っていることが近大の強み

The greatest strength of Kindai University lies in the identity of having studied medical oncology in both the Faculty of Medicine and the Graduate School.

In 1984, NAKAGAWA Kazuhiko began his residency in the First Department of Internal Medicine at Kumamoto University Hospital. The very first patient entrusted to him was a man with lung cancer.
“He was still in his thirties, a young man. The cancer was already at stage III and had spread to his lymph nodes. At that time, surgery was the only recognized treatment, so we referred him to the surgeons,” NAKAGAWA recalls.
Surgery meant cutting out the cancerous area along with the surrounding tissue. But if the cancer had metastasized, such an operation could not be curative.
“A few months later, distant metastases were detected, and he was sent back to our department. That was when I decided to use an anticancer drug called cisplatin,” he recalls.
Cisplatin, a cytotoxic antineoplastic agent, is—put simply—an anticancer drug that destroys the DNA of cancer cells.
“At the time, drug therapy for cancer drew almost no attention. Cisplatin had only just become available in Japan. In the First Department of Internal Medicine, no one had ever used it. Even though I was just an intern, I wanted to try it. I ordered the data from the pharmaceutical company and administered it myself.”
Cisplatin was undeniably powerful, but it came with heavy side effects.
“It can damage the kidneys, so we had to intravenously give the patient two to three liters of fluids per day,” NAKAGAWA says.
Because it was the first time he had ever used the drug, NAKAGAWA admits he had been extremely nervous, almost trembling with caution. Yet at the core was only one thought: the desperate wish to save the patient standing before him.
After a stint at Yatsushiro Rosai Hospital, NAKAGAWA moved in 1985 to Kumamoto Minami National Hospital. One day, a phone call came from Kumamoto University Hospital, summoning him immediately.
“That patient had passed away. When the hospital had requested a pathological autopsy for research into new treatments, his wife insisted that I be present as a condition,” he explains.
Hurrying to the hospital, NAKAGAWA entered the autopsy room, where a woman stood in stunned silence, clutching the hand of a small girl. The moment she saw NAKAGAWA’s face, she broke into tears and threw her arms around him.
“It touched me deeply that his wife recognized how hard I had fought for her husband. But, the truth was, I hadn’t been able to save him. I felt utterly powerless,” he says.
The following year, in 1986, NAKAGAWA resolved to apply for a domestic fellowship at the National Cancer Center in Tsukiji, Tokyo.
Founded in 1962, the National Cancer Center had become Japan’s core cancer institution, comprising both the Central Hospital for clinical care and the Research Institute for basic science. At that time, the center was recruiting Clinical Residents, or Clinical Fellows.
But—
“You know, I usually fail exams,” NAKAGAWA says with a laugh.
“And when I failed this one, I was deeply discouraged. Then I got a call from a senior figure at the Cancer Center. He told me I hadn’t made it as a Clinical Resident but asked if I would come as a Research Resident instead.”
A Research Resident meant a young physician or medical professional who focuses primarily on research rather than on daily clinical duties.
For many years, the leading cause of death in Japan had been tuberculosis. But with the advent of antibiotics and improvements in public hygiene, tuberculosis had plummeted. Stroke then took over as the number one killer—until the 1980s, when cancer surpassed it. The Japanese government had begun to place national priority on improving cancer treatment outcomes.
“I think the idea was not just to train clinicians, but also doctors well-versed in basic science who could develop new treatments. I had originally intended to go to the Cancer Center to learn about new anticancer drug therapies, but I ended up heading in a different direction. In the end, that turned out to be the best thing for me,” NAKAGAWA reflects.
The road he had taken almost reluctantly would, in time, become NAKAGAWA’s true calling—his vocation.

At the U.S. National Cancer Institute, there were no boundaries between clinical departments.

NAKAGAWA Kazuhiko was born in 1957 in the rural town of Kamoto, Kamoto District, Kumamoto Prefecture (present-day Yamaga City). He was the youngest of three children, with two elder sisters. Just fifty days after his birth, tragedy struck—his father died in a traffic accident. His mother raised the three siblings alone, working at a poultry cooperative to make ends meet.
“I often say I grew up thanks to the chickens,” he says with a smile.
Kamoto was a basin town surrounded by the mountains of northern Kumamoto, an area rich in natural beauty.
“As a child, I was restless. I was always forgetting things—my school bag, my uniform, you name it,” he admitted.
It was during high school that he first thought of becoming a doctor.
“It wasn’t a strong ambition to be a physician specifically, but I wanted a job that involved working with people. I thought maybe a schoolteacher or a doctor would be good options.”
Yet his first step was not into medicine, but engineering.
“I didn’t think my grades were good enough for medical school, so I applied to mechanical engineering. I passed the exam and enrolled, but it never sat right with me. So, I decided to take a year off and try again.”
It was not an easy choice. Growing up in a single-parent household, the family was far from wealthy. “Honestly, I was being selfish,” he admits, scratching his head.
“I failed again on my first retry, but on the second I finally passed.”
In 1977, NAKAGAWA entered the Faculty of Medicine at Kumamoto University.
“At first, my goal was to become a town doctor, someone who could provide primary care. That’s why I chose the First Department of Internal Medicine, where you could see all kinds of diseases.”
It was there that he first encountered a patient with lung cancer, an experience that eventually led him to the National Cancer Center Research Institute’s Division of Experimental Chemotherapy.
“At first, I never even imagined that I would end up doing research,” he recalls.
At the National Cancer Center, his primary focus became research into how to overcome cancer drug resistance.
“The anticancer drugs of that time were cytotoxic agents, designed to preferentially kill cancer cells by exploiting their faster rate of division compared to normal cells. But even if the drugs worked at first, they quickly stopped being effective. That phenomenon is what we call drug resistance. Our thinking was that if we could study the mechanisms behind this and find a way to keep the drugs working, we might be able to truly control cancer as a disease.”
In 1987, after serving as a senior resident in internal medicine at the National Cancer Center Hospital, NAKAGAWA moved in 1990 to the Second Department of Internal Medicine at Habikino Hospital in Osaka Prefecture.
“At that time, Habikino Hospital was called the ‘Cancer Center of the West’ for lung cancer treatment. We saw an incredible number of lung cancer patients. I also took part in the predecessor of today’s JCOG (the Japan Clinical Oncology Group), conducting nationwide clinical trials and the rare early-stage drug studies that existed in Japan at the time.”
In 1994, NAKAGAWA went abroad to study at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland. The NCI was, and remains, one of the world’s foremost centers for cancer research.
What struck NAKAGAWA most in America was the absence of rigid boundaries between medical specialties.
“I had focused exclusively on lung cancer in my research. My supervisor, Dr. Michael Kelley, also specialized in lung cancer, but he studied other cancer types as well. In his lab, there were people researching blood cancers, pancreatic cancer, and many other malignancies. I, too, began to look beyond lung cancer and study cancer as a whole.”
He smiles softly. “And I found that was fun, too.”
“Lung cancer is actually quite different from other respiratory diseases such as emphysema or asthma. On the other hand, when it comes to tumors, it is very close to gastric cancer and other malignancies. What researchers are discovering in those cancers often applies to lung cancer as well.”
At the NCI, NAKAGAWA was also involved in the basic research that would later lead to the development of molecular targeted therapies. That experience—participating in the very process of drug discovery—became a tremendous asset for him.
In July 1997, at the invitation of FUKUOKA Masahiro, his former supervisor from the Habikino Hospital days, NAKAGAWA returned to Japan and joined the Fourth Department of Internal Medicine at Kindai University Faculty of Medicine.
“I thought that if I went to work under Professor Fukuoka, I would surely be able to continue my research in cancer.”

Kindai University’s strength lies in having a course in Medical Oncology both in the Faculty of Medicine and in the Graduate School.

One of NAKAGAWA’s most vivid memories of working with FUKUOKA was the founding of the Department of Medical Oncology at Kindai.
“Professor Fukuoka was deeply considering how cancer treatment and research should move forward at Kindai. At that time, the university president, Professor Noda Kiichiro, had apparently asked him whether it would be better to first establish a Department of Medical Oncology or a Cancer Center. Professor Fukuoka even asked for my opinion,” NAKAGAWA recalls.
Drawing on his experience at the NCI, NAKAGAWA answered without hesitation:
“It should be medical oncology—an oncology department that can treat cancer across organ boundaries. Please, absolutely make it happen.”
And so, in April 2002, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine formally opened its Department of Medical Oncology. In 2003, NAKAGAWA became an Associate Professor in the new department, and in 2007, he succeeded FUKUOKA as the second Professor of Medical Oncology.
Seven years after the Department of Medical Oncology was established, in 2009, the Cancer Center was founded within Kindai University Hospital. Cancer had become one of the central pillars of Kindai University Faculty of Medicine and its affiliated hospital.
NAKAGAWA believes the true strength of Kindai University lies in having not only the undergraduate medical program but also a graduate course in medical oncology.
“Our graduate school draws not only alumni of Kindai University Faculty of Medicine but also students from other universities who come here to train in both research and clinical practice. They don’t just study narrow specialties by organ—they learn broadly and develop their identity as medical oncologists. Some stay here, and others go on to work all over Japan,” he explains.
In the fall of 2025, the Faculty of Medicine and its affiliated hospital will relocate from their longtime home in Osaka-Sayama to the new campus in Sakai City. NAKAGAWA believes this relocation, and the opening of the new hospital, will become the catalyst for the Department of Medical Oncology to rise to the next level.
“Until now, facilities such as the Cancer Counseling and Support Center, the Palliative Care Center, the Outpatient Chemotherapy Center, and outpatient oncology clinics have all been scattered in separate physical spaces. With the move, they will finally be brought together in one place. What was once connected only virtually will become physically integrated,” he says.
With this transformation, Kindai University Hospital’s Department of Medical Oncology and the Cancer Center are poised to take another decisive step forward.