I am deeply honored to chair the joint 5^th Asian Congress of Hyperthermic Oncology (ACHO) and the 27^th Japanese Congress of Thermal Medicine (JCTM). This joint congress is scheduled to be held for two days from Friday, September 10 to Saturday, September 11, 2010 at the Centennial Hall of Kyushu University Faculty of Medicine in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is truly a great pleasure for me to be involved in the organization of this congress, which is renowned for its rich history and tradition.

I sincerely hope that this congress will be highly productive with "Thermal Medicine: Opening the Door to the 21^st Century" as the main theme. The congress will provide participants a venue to listen to the latest ideas presented by experts at the vanguard of various disciplines ranging from clinical practice to biology and engineering. Let me especially encourage young and up-and-coming researchers to take part in various programs proactively to further develop their abilities for the betterment of the next generation of specialists.

Hyperthermia therapy is a "patient-friendly" therapy for cancer because it has few side effects, and has also been drawing attention as a form of treatment following surgery, irradiation, or chemotherapy. Recently, a new dimension has been brought to cancer therapy, including the development of new anticancer agents and the clinical application of molecularly targeted therapy. I believe that hyperthermia therapy will be used in combination with other strategies and play a part in the development of combined multidisciplinary therapy. Moreover, with regard to hyperthermia therapy for malignant tumors, expectations of a new dimension to thermal medicine are being placed not only on conventional hyperthermia therapy (42-44°C), but also on mild hyperthermia therapy (40-41.5°C), which sensitizes cells to irradiation and anticancer drugs, cryotherapy (0°C or lower), and ablation therapy (60-100°C), such as the use of microwaves and HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound). In addition to these, hyperthermia therapy has various effects, such as protection against viral infection, recovery of immunological capacity, and maintenance of organ function, and studies of hyperthermia therapy have been expanding into new realms other than cancer treatment as well.

The 21^st century is called the postgenome age. Bioscience is believed to have entered the next phase following the announcement of the identification of all of the base sequences of the human genome in 2003. The causes of human diseases and the mechanisms of action of hyperthermia therapy are now expected to be elucidated at the genetic and molecular levels, respectively.

I sincerely hope that this congress which has "Thermal Medicine: Opening the Door to the 21^st Century" as the main theme will contribute to ushering in a new spirit of the postgenome age and advancing thermal medicine to attain new dimensions.

Let me close this address by encouraging as many colleagues as possible to take part in this congress. I look forward to welcoming you here in Fukuoka in the comfortable and pleasant early fall.

Dr. Yoshihiko Maehara
Professor
Department of Surgery and Science
Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University