Title	Kiyoko and Paul Bourdarie-Goto Scientific Prize
Laureate	Hisashi SAJI, M.D., Ph.D.
	Professor & Chair, Department of Thoracic Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine
Paper	Segmentectomy versus lobectomy in small-sized peripheral non-small-cell lung cancer (JCOG0802/WJOG4607L): a multicentre, open-label, phase 3, randomised, controlled, non-inferiority trial (Lancet. 2022 Apr 23;399(10335):1607-1617.)
Reason for selection (Dr. Jun NAKAJIMA, Chairman of the Advisory Committee)	Dr. Saji and colleagues conducted a multi-institutional study involving 70 Japanese hospitals to investigate the extent of pulmonary resection for small peripheral non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at clinical stage IA, 2 cm or less in the largest dimension. A prospective randomized trial compared lobectomy, the conventional standard procedure, with segmentectomy, a smaller resection. The results showed pulmonary segmentectomy had a significantly higher overall survival rate and postoperative forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) than lobectomy. The results of this study have a remarkably high global impact, changing the standard of surgical therapy for early NSCLC.
Message from the Laureate

Title	Kiyoko and Paul Bourdarie-Goto Scientific Prize -Special Award
Laureate	Hiroshi ICHISE, Ph.D.
	Visiting fellow, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Paper	Functional visualization of NK cell-mediated killing of metastatic single tumor cells (eLife, 2022; 11, e76269 (1-28))
Reason for selection (Dr. Jun NAKAJIMA, Chairman of the Advisory Committee)	Dr. Ichise and colleagues performed a technique to visualize the surveillance mechanism, and observed changes in the antitumor effect of NK cells over time. They found that the tumor surveillance and elimination effects of NK cells are inhibited after 24 hours of tumor seeding, and clarified the mechanism by which thrombin is involved as one of the causes of this inhibition. The results of this study are important for the elucidation of strategies to prevent cancer metastasis.
Message from the Laureate	I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone involved for the prestigious Kiyoko and Paul Bourdarie-Goto Scientific Prize Special Award. I would also like to sincerely thank everyone who was involved in this research. Natural killer cells have the ability to kill cancer cells and play an important role in preventing the metastasis of cancer. However, the questions of "when," "where," and "to what extent" they kill cancer cells in the body and "why they allow metastasis" are not well understood. These are basic questions that seemingly anyone can think of, but until now they have been technically challenging to prove. Our research group has successfully observed for the first time in the world how natural killer cells kill cancer cells metastasizing to the lungs by combining ultra-sensitive luminescence imaging with single-cell level detection sensitivity in vivo, two-photon excitation microscopy that enables direct observation of cells in vivo, and biosensors that monitor molecular activity in living cells and animals. During the observation, we found that the killing ability of the natural killer cells gradually decreased and revealed that one of the coagulation factors was shedding the molecule from the cancer cells that play a key role in recognition of the natural killer cells. We hope these findings obtained by directly observing the tissue will contribute to cancer research in the future, as they cannot be obtained by other analytical methods that require tissue destruction. I hope to contribute to the understanding of cancer in the future by further developing this "tissue-viewing" research.

Title	Kiyoko and Paul Bourdarie-Goto Scientific Prize -Special Award
Laureate	Yoshihisa KOBAYASHI, M.D., Ph.D.
	Staff Scientist, Division of Molecular Pathology, National Cancer Center Research Institute
Paper	Silent mutations reveal therapeutic vulnerability in RAS Q61 cancers. (Nature 2022; 603(7900):335-342.)
Reason for selection (Dr. Jun NAKAJIMA, Chairman of the Advisory Committee)	Dr. Kobayashi and his colleagues have elucidated the mechanism by which silent mutations cause carcinogenesis due to specific KRAS mutations, and have demonstrated the efficacy of nucleic acid drugs targeting a weakness in splicing of the RAS gene. They also demonstrated the efficacy of nucleic acid drugs targeting a weakness in splicing of the RAS gene at the experimental level, which is expected to lead to new molecularly targeted therapies for cancer, since KRAS mutations are involved in many cancers, not only lung cancer.
Message from the Laureate	I am deeply grateful to have received this special award, and I feel extremely honored. As a thoracic surgeon, I have been involved in a wide range of lung cancer treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and palliative care.　Through my work as a primary physician, I was inspired by my patients whose tumors harbored rare mutations or developed resistance to drugs. I began research on lung cancer with the hope that it would contribute to further advancements in treatment beyond the current standard therapy. I have received mentorship from many wonderful professors during my graduate, research abroad, and up to the present. This study on drug resistance unexpectedly led to the discovery of a weakness in the biological splicing of the RAS family genes. I proposed a new treatment that attacks only cancer cells by using the mechanism that cancer cleverly evades to avoid this weakness. In the future, I will work hard to implement this treatment, apply this biological approach to other genes, and promote international collaboration among young researchers.