The Japanese Gastric Cancer Association (JGCA) established the ‘‘Nishi Memorial Award in Gastric Cancer’’ to commend high-quality papers published in Gastric Cancer. In each volume of the Journal, three articles are selected by the Editorial Committee, and the JGCA awards 100,000 Japanese yen to the first authors.

For volume 18, the following articles were selected.

‘‘Determination of the optimal cutoff percentage of residual tumors to define the pathological response rate for gastric cancer treated with preoperative therapy (JCOG1004-A)”

Gastric Cancer 2015; 18:597–604

Kenichi Nakamura, Takeshi Kuwata, Tadakazu Shimoda, Junki Mizusawa, Hiroshi Katayama, Ryoji Kushima, Hirokazu Taniguchi, Takeshi Sano, Mitsuru Sasako, Haruhiko Fukuda

JCOG Data Center/Operations Office, Multi-institutional Clinical Trial Support Center, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan

There had not been any standard cut-off percentage of the residual tumor area to define the pathological response rate for gastric cancer. We determined the optimal cut-off percentage as 10 %.

Dr. Kenichi Nakamura

‘‘Randomized controlled trial comparing gastric cancer screening by gastrointestinal X-ray with serology for Helicobacter pylori and pepsinogens followed by gastrointestinal endoscopy’’

Gastric Cancer 2015; 18:605–611

Takuji Gotoda, Hideki Ishikawa, Hirohide Ohnishi, Kentaro Sugano, Chika Kusano, Chizu Yokoi, Yutaka Matsuyama, Fuminori Moriyasu

Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan

Present address: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Helicobacter pylori-negative population is increasing. An alternative cost-effective screening for gastric cancer is demanded. We are organizing the first RCT to compare the existing screening method and the alternative method.

Dr. Takuji Gotoda

‘‘Expression profiles of HER2, EGFR, MET and FGFR2 in a large cohort of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma’’

Gastric Cancer 2015; 18:227–238

Akiko Kawano Nagatsuma, Masaki Aizawa, Takeshi Kuwata, Toshihiko Doi, Atsushi Ohtsu, Hirofumi Fujii, Atsushi Ochiai

Division of Pathology, Research Center for Innovative Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa-city, Chiba, Japan

Sixty-three percent of the gastric adenocarcinomas expressed at least one RTK, and one third of them simultaneously expressed multiple RTKs. Our results may help with the selection of targeted therapies.

Dr. Akiko Kawano Nagatsuma