Uterine Body Neoplasms

Hidemichi Watari, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hokkaido University's Graduate School of Medicine in Sapporo. He earned his M.D. from Hokkaido University School of Medicine in 1989 and completed his residency there in the same year. In 1995, he received his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University, and in 1996 he served as a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2001 and became Lecturer in the Department of Gynecology at Hokkaido University Hospital in 2006. Professor Watari was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015, and in 2018 he became Professor and Chairman of his department. As department chair, he has led extensive multicenter Phase III clinical trials to establish standardized lymphadenectomy protocols in endometrial cancer.

He also oversees translational research initiatives in gynecologic oncology, including early detection of cervical cancer, organoid and patient-derived xenograft models, urinary exosome diagnostics, and studies on epithelial-mesenchymal transition and non-coding RNAs. His research group integrates clinical questions from daily practice with molecular epidemiology and basic cell biology approaches. Under his leadership, the department provides advanced clinical services in perinatal care, gynecologic oncology, reproductive health, women's health, and genetic medicine. Many of his graduate trainees go on to serve as OB-GYNs in diverse settings.

Dr. Takashi Mitamura, M.D., Ph.D., serves as Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hokkaido University Hospital in Sapporo. He earned his medical doctorate from Hokkaido University and has focused his research and clinical practice on gynecologic oncology, particularly in ovarian and endometrial cancers. Dr. Mitamura has co-authored significant clinical studies, including research on prognostic factors in recurrent endometrial cancer and multivariate analysis of adenocarcinoma in the uterine cervix, conducted alongside Professor Hidemichi Watari and colleagues.

In 2021, he contributed to a retrospective study examining disease sites in female genital cancers associated with BRCA1/2 mutations. Since 2018, he has played an active role in developing clinical practice guidelines directed by the Japanese Society of Gynecologic Oncology. He was a member of the guideline committee for ovarian cancer (2020 edition) and has been involved in the endometrial cancer guideline group since 2021 .Dr. Mitamura's research has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2018 Academic Encouragement Award and the 2021 Outstanding Paper Award from the Hokkaido Society of Obstetrics & Gynecology.