ASTRA 2025

Mitsuho Imai-Sumida

Invited Speaker, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan

Mitsuho Imai, M.D., Ph.D. is a physician-scientist at the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan. She specializes in cancer genomics and precision oncology, with a focus on translational approaches to solid tumors. After receiving her M.D. from Tohoku University and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, she pursued postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, where she investigated cancer metastasis using organoid and single-cell approaches.

Dr. Imai currently leads large-scale spatial transcriptomics (ST) and multi-omics analyses in the SCRUM-Japan MONSTAR projects, which comprise thousands of clinical cases across tumor types. Her research integrates ST with AI-driven pathology to dissect the tumor microenvironment, identify novel biomarkers, and predict responses to immunotherapy and targeted therapies. She also plays a central role in Japan’s national efforts for multi-cancer early detection (MCED) using liquid biopsy.
Through these initiatives, Dr. Imai aims to advance precision oncology and establish spatially resolved biomarker platforms that can be shared across the Asia-Pacific region.