Your window into Astellas’ world of patient-centered and science-driven healthcare, as told by the experts who bring it to life.
This article features a real patient sharing his personal experience and is available to the public for disease awareness only. Individual experiences may vary. It does not endorse any specific treatments or medications. Please consult your healthcare professional for medical advice.
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Being diagnosed with cancer can happen suddenly.
For many, it reshapes how they see life and what they value. Concerns about work, family and the future may leave them wondering how to move forward.
Yet no two cancer journeys are the same. Even with the same diagnosis, people may face different challenges, hold different priorities and envision different futures.
One such individual is Mr. Kohei Onozaki, Founder & Chairman of SustainaHealth. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2025, underwent surgery and experienced a recurrence in 2026. While continuing treatment, he remains highly active, traveling throughout Japan, delivering lectures and exercising. Despite living with cancer, he continues to lead life on his own terms. In this conversation, Kohei speaks with Naoki Okamura, Astellas President and CEO, and Katsuyoshi Sugita, Astellas Chief People Officer (CPO).
Mr. Kohei Onozaki
Founder & Chairman
SustainaHealth
One thing that struck Kohei after becoming a patient was how far medicine has advanced.
When people hear "recurrent esophageal cancer," many may imagine a life centered on rest and recovery. Kohei's experience is very different. Guided by the ideas that "you can be ill and still be well" and that "life does not have to change," he continues to lecture, travel for work and lead a daily life largely unchanged from before treatment. Exercise also remains important to him. On a recent hospital visit, he ran around the Imperial Palace before his appointment. Since starting chemotherapy, he has achieved personal bests this year in marathon running, swimming and motorcycle racing.
The reality of recurrent cancer is, of course, far from insignificant. Surgery to remove his esophagus dramatically changed the way he eats and made dining out more difficult. Still, becoming a patient revealed a gap between society's image of people with cancer and his lived experience. He recalls being confronted by assumptions that cancer patients must be suffering or feeling unwell, perceptions he describes as a form of stigma.
"Many patients, like me, continue working and living much as they did before treatment. New treatment options and advances in supportive care that help manage side effects are transforming patients' lives. I did not truly appreciate how far medicine had advanced until I became a patient myself."
While discussing patient-centered healthcare, Katsuyoshi noted that this principle extends beyond healthcare.
The same is true when considering diversity and inclusion. With the best intentions, people sometimes assume what would be best for someone or what that person must be thinking. But is that what the individual really wants?
Katsuyoshi says that people's values and perceptions, including how they approach disease, vary greatly. Through his own and his family's experiences, he has seen that people can respond very differently to the same disease or circumstances.
"We cannot know what someone is thinking without asking, so the first step is to listen carefully."
The same principle applies to understanding patients. Some people living with a medical condition want to be treated as they always have been. Others need support from those around them. Some want to keep working, while others choose to pause. There is no single image of a patient and no single way to respond to disease.
Kohei also describes disease as a form of diversity. Rather than viewing someone through the category of "patient," he believes it is essential to engage with that person as an individual.
"Through my contact with patients, I have come to realize how greatly their attitudes toward disease and treatment vary depending on their values, family circumstances, employment, income and health literacy."
The support each patient needs also differs.
Believing that we already understand patients may create distance. What matters is seeking to understand each person's values and life, rather than judging them through our own experiences, impressions or standards.
For Kohei, who has worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare policy, patient support and access to healthcare were not unfamiliar subjects.
Through his work on Social Determinants of Health, he believed he understood how employment, income and living conditions affect health. Becoming a patient, however, made him realize firsthand how profoundly the patient experience is shaped not only by disease, but also by work, income, family circumstances and living environment.
One example is the cost of care. During cancer treatment, Kohei received high-cost medication. Japan's high-cost medical expense benefit system helps limit patients' financial burden, yet his out-of-pocket costs remained substantial. Some corporate health insurance associations provide additional benefits that reduce these costs further. For people without access to such programs, however, treatment expenses can significantly affect daily life.
The price of the medication Kohei received had fallen substantially since its launch. From an industry perspective, it might therefore be seen simply as a medicine whose price had declined. As a patient, however, he still faced out-of-pocket costs approaching 200,000 yen per month.
"I thought I understood the system. But once I became a patient, everything looked completely different. I had expected medical expenses, but when I saw the amount at the hospital cashier, I was stunned by the financial burden. Lying in my hospital bed, I wondered whether I had always viewed the healthcare system from a 'safe distance.' Had I completely lacked the imagination to see it from a patient's perspective?"
Patients' information needs also vary. In addition to treatment options, patients may seek information about balancing treatment with work and daily life or about the experiences of others with the same disease. Their interests extend beyond medical specialties and the boundaries of individual organizations.
Becoming a patient gave Kohei a renewed appreciation for information provided by pharmaceutical companies and healthcare institutions. It also highlighted the importance of enabling patients to access the information they need across different sources. As patients draw on a wide range of information, he believes that pharmaceutical companies' disease awareness websites, supported by expert oversight and rigorous internal review, could play an even greater role.
At the same time, becoming a patient showed Kohei how Japan's national efforts have strengthened cancer care. Only then, he says, did he fully appreciate the support developed over many years, including consultation following diagnosis, a wider range of treatment options, employment support and appearance care for treatment-related changes in physical appearance.
While hospitalized for cancer treatment, he also thought about patients with rare or intractable diseases and their families.
"Becoming a patient made me realize that cancer care is supported by many systems and treatment options. By contrast, some patients with rare or intractable diseases wait a long time for a diagnosis or have few adequate treatment options. I wondered whether some people still lack sufficient access to the support they need."
His experience as a patient led him to look beyond cancer care and reconsider broader challenges in healthcare and society.
"I am still undergoing treatment. Yet I can continue my daily life and look to the future with hope because medicines and other medical technologies continue to advance. The very fact that the search for new medicines continues gives patients tremendous hope."
Naoki Okamura
Representative Director
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Listening to Kohei, Naoki reflected on how much healthcare has changed.
Cancer was once often discussed in terms of whether it could be cured. Today, advances in medicine allow many patients to receive treatment while continuing their daily lives and living in a way that reflects who they are. Naoki believes this calls for a new perspective on healthcare.
"Curing disease is, of course, important. But is it not equally important for patients to live in a way that is true to who they are?"
Medical progress, however, is far from complete. Many unmet medical needs remain, including diseases without adequately established treatments, rare diseases and intractable conditions. Naoki says that one role of pharmaceutical companies is to create and deliver new VALUE for these patients and their families.
"Our role at Astellas is to harness the power of innovation to create and deliver new treatment options, even for diseases that currently have no treatment."
Patient centricity is not a one-size-fits-all concept. Every patient faces different circumstances and holds different values. What matters is listening to patients, learning from them and moving forward while sometimes reconsidering our own assumptions.
This conversation has brought that question back to us. We believe that continuing to engage with it will lead to better healthcare and a better future for every patient. Astellas will continue listening to patients and addressing unmet medical needs, with a focus on creating and delivering innovative treatment options faster.
This story presents one patient's experience. The effects of disease and treatment, as well as people's thoughts about their lives, differ from one person to another. Not every patient has the same experience. We want to remember that every patient has their own life and their own deeply held aspirations.
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