Announcing the winner of the John J. Sciarra IJGO Prize Paper Award for 2021

Abstract

The editors of the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics (IJGO) are pleased to announce the winner of the prize paper award for the best clinical research paper from a low- or middle-income country published in IJGO during 2021. The winning paper is: Tang X, Guo C, Liu S, Guo J, Hua K and Qiu J. A novel prognostic nomogram utilizing the 2018 FIGO staging system for cervical cancer: A large multicenter study. Int J Gynecol Obstet 2021;155:86–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.13644. It was published in the October 2021 issue of IJGO. This award brings with it a stipend of £800, a certificate of recognition, and complimentary access to IJGO for a period of 1 year from the date the prize is awarded. All clinical research articles submitted to the IJGO from low- and middle-income countries that were published in 2021 were considered for this prize. The paper was chosen from 95 qualifying articles. Selection and review were undertaken by the editors, and the Editorial Board of IJGO endorsed the decision. The winning paper by Tang et al. evaluated the prognostic performance of the revised 2018 FIGO staging system for cervical cancer in a multicentre study across four sites. In 3238 patients with cervical cancer, 1841 (almost 60%) were re-staged. Almost one third of these were re-staged due to tumor size, approximately 30% due to lymph node metastasis, and one third due to the inconsistency between the pre-operative and post-operative assessments. They concluded that the 2018 FIGO staging system was a better reflection of the survival of cervical cancer patients. This very important work also allowed the group to establish a nomogram that allowed them to predict the prognosis of cervical cancer more accurately. Additional papers that are worthy of special recognition are awarded an honorable mention. While the honorable mention recognition does not include a financial award, each author receives a certificate of recognition and a letter of commendation from the editors of IJGO. The IJGO Prize Paper Award was established in 1998 for the purpose of encouraging investigators, especially young scientists, from low- and middle-income countries to submit their best clinical research articles for publication in the journal. IJGO is the official publication of FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics), the primary international organization for the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology. FIGO is dedicated to enhancing the health care of women worldwide. HONORABLE MENTIONS 2021 The following 11 papers receive an honorable mention: China Li Y, Wang H, Zhang Y, et al. Correlation between multi-type human papillomavirus infections and viral loads and the cervical pathological grade. 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Int J Gynecol Obstet. 2021;155:532–538. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.13613