On February 19, 2016, the 1st China Women and Children’s Health Sci-tech Conference & Unveiling Ceremony for the 1st Women and Children’s Health Sci-tech Awards was held at the Great Hall of the People. The event was guided by the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the National Office for Science & Technology Awards, and co-organized by the Women and Children’s Health Institute and China Women’s Development Foundation. Our project “clinical application of new ideas for endometriosis” led by Professor Leng Jinhua was the number one among 1st-prize projects. Professor Bian Xuming from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology received the “distinguished contribution award”. 

Award presenters included: Gu Xiulian, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the10th National People's Congress and director of the China National Committee for the Wellbeing of the Youth, Sang Guowei, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the11th National People's Congress, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary chairman of the Women and Children’s Health Institute, and Wang Guoqiang, vice director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. 

The China Women and Children’s Health Sci-tech Awards are created to promote science and technology for the health of women and children and to commend individuals and institutions that have made exceptional contributions in this field. The 1st Awards touch such areas as women’s healthcare, children’s healthcare, family planning, prevention of birth defects, perinatal healthcare, reproductive health, and basis and application of traditional Chinese medicine. 63 awards were given to sci-tech achievements and 33 to natural science. Only 13 projects received the 1st prize for sci-tech achievements.

Endometriosis is a disorder commonly seen among women in reproductive period, which seriously affects their body, mind and life. It has an occurrence rate as high as 10-15% among women at reproductive ages, and 40-50% among infertile women. 70-80% patients suffer from pains of different types and degrees, as upon menstruation, sex and defecation as well as chronic pelvic pain. Presently operations on endometriosis have taken more than 30-40% of operations on benign disorders in gynecology. So far the pathogenesis of endometriosis is still unknown and clinical symptoms vary. In spite of its benign nature, it reoccurs and is aggressive, growing wildly in the pelvic cavity. Academician Lang Jinghe used the term “pelvic sandstorm” to describe the commonness and complication of this disease and “benign cancer” for the difficulty of treatment. It has become a common health problem across the world and one of the frequent diseases in gynecology that consume the most healthcare resources. It is therefore one of the hot spots of basic and clinical research in gynecology and obstetrics. 

Since 2009, our research team led by Professor Leng Jinhua has, based on the theory of “determinant of uterine eutopic endometrium” proposed by Academician Lang Jinghe, actively carried out clinical translation of the theory of “addressing the root”. Guided by Lang, the team conducted China’s largest research in standardized treatment of EM through laparoscope, China’s earliest research in the protection of ovary functions upon laparoscope surgery, China’s first research on clinical classification of deeply infiltrating endometriosis and laparoscope surgery, clinical and basic research on EM malignant transformation, as well as research on the life quality of patients and healthcare economics in the treating of EM; regarding pathogenesis, the team focused on genomics of uterine eutopic endometrium and neuroanatomy. All the researches above were first in China, and the team was also the first to propose the ideas of “EM as a manageable disease” and “lifelong management”.

In the recent five years, the research team published 85 theses on EM in domestic and foreign journals, including 16 SCI papers (with a total impact factor of 48.281) and 69 papers in core journals at home. Team members reported their achievements at the 10th and 11th World Congress on Endometriosis and the 42nd and 43rd AAGL Annual Conference. The research team was supported by several state-level foundations, including the National Natural Science Foundation general project and youth project, and the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the “10th Five-Year Plan”. In recent years it also received support from the Ministry of Health as a key clinical project.

The aforesaid researches and results provided important theoretical basis for China’s 2nd version of EM diagnosis and treatment standards revised in 2015, and led China into the world rank regarding basic research and clinical treatment of this disease.   

Prof. Bian Xuming and Prof. Leng Jinhua at the ceremony