2017 the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting (JSMO2017) will be held in Kobe on July 27, 28, and 29, 2017.

Since the establishment in 1993 of its predecessor, the Japan Clinical Oncology Research Association, the membership of the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology has continued to expand, and at the end of May 2016 stood at 9,068 members. Attendance at the Annual Meeting also exceeds 5,000, with every conference providing lively debate, and doctors, other medical staff, and patients involved in cancer treatment recognize this meeting as an opportunity for presenting research on cancer medicine and raising public awareness, as well as an important event for promoting the improvement of clinical technologies for fighting cancer.

The theme of the Annual Meeting is “The Best Cancer Care – Anytime, Anywhere, and for Anyone –.” Ten years after the Cancer Control Act came into effect, we will discuss the question of how much progress has been made in standardizing cancer medicine, involving not only medical professionals and researchers but patients and members of the public in the debate and exploring strategies for the future. During the three days of the meeting, the Junko Fukutake Hall in the Okayama University Shikata Campus will be open to the general public, and we are planning not only to broadcast sessions live from Kobe but also to hold sessions that link the two venues to allow the exchange of opinions between them.

We also regard the inheritance of a cross-sectional framework, the further progression of globalization, and presenting the latest results and sharing information as core elements of the Annual Meeting.