Toshihide Tanaka

Dr. Toshihide Tanaka is Professor and Chief Medical Officer of rhe department of neurosurgery, The Jikei University School of Medicine.

Major research interest of Dr. Tanaka is regarding tumor angiogenesis, one of the pivotal pathogenesis of malignant tumors including glioblastoma and therapeutic targets. In the field of basic science, he developed animal models for therapeutics utilizing viral vectors carrying antiangiogenic genes including platelet factor 4, angiostatin, and endostatin.

In the field of neuro-oncology, the innovative work of Dr. Tanaka’s multidisciplinary team has focused on the design and selection of personalized hypervascular malignant glioma treatments based on neuroradiological findings by preoperative administration of bevacizumab, demonstrating a benefit of surgical radical resection for which hyper-vascular tumor turning into less vascular and decreasing tumor volume and edema. Comparative in situ histological investigation between with or without bevacizumab demonstrated that tumor oxygenation and diminishing of cancer stem cells were induced during effectiveness of bevacizumab, compared with tumors in naïve or recurrence after bevacizumab therapy. In addition, he demonstrated that bevacizumab has an additional benefit for providing immunosupportive tumor microenvironment, which was induced by inhibition of immunosuppressive cells including regulatory T cells and M2-polarized tumor associated macrophages, and immune checkpoint molecules including PD-1 and PD-L1. Those alterations caused induction of cytotoxic T cells, which might accelerate the effectiveness of tumor immunotherapy.

Dr. Tanaka has authored about 150 articles published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, and has given more than 350 presentations in medical and scientific conferences in Japan and United States.

Dr. Tanaka is a member of the Japan Neurosurgical Society, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Japan Society for Neuro-Oncology, and Japan Cancer Society. He is also an active member of American Association for Cancer Research. He also participated in the Japan Society for Molecular Neurosurgery Scientific Program Committee from 2004 to 2007. He is also a committee of guideline for craniotomy using intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging.