Prof Nathan Lawrentschuk

Professor Nathan Lawrentschuk MBBS, FRACS PhD, is a urologist and urologic-oncologist who graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and trained in Urology in Victoria. He furthered his training with both research and clinical fellowships in Uro-oncology including robotic surgery for two years at the University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada - where he obtained a Society of Urologic Oncology Fellowship and award for Best Clinical teacher. He completed a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2010 for research into advanced oncology and PET-CT imaging at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is Director of Urology at The Royal Melbourne Hospital Department of Urology and founding Director of the EJ Whitten Prostate Cancer Research Centre at Epworth Hospital as well as being a Urologic Oncologist in the Division of Cancer Surgery at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Nathan’s chief research and clinical interests are in the biology and clinical management of urologic tumours. He has published 500 peer-reviewed articles, eighteen book chapters and is frequently invited to speak nationally and internationally. He has served as the Vice-Chairman of the World Urologic Oncology Federation and is a member of the Société Internationale d'Urologie (SIU) Young Innovators Committee. He co-founded the Bladder Cancer Australia Charity Foundation (Bladdercancer.org.au) and serves on a number of national cancer and tumour professional and patient groups including the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

He is the Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Supplement for the BJU International and serves on many international journal editorial boards. He founded the young Urologists Research Organisation to foster and develop research by young doctors interested in urology in Australia. He supervises many medical students and higher degree students undertaking training, PhD, Doctorate and Master’s research into areas such as imaging, focal therapy and penile cancer. He also teaches medical students is involved with their research projects and supervises urology trainees as well as been a past member of the USANZ training committee.

Nathan has a particular clinical interest in cancer undertaking high-risk surgery of the prostate, kidney, bladder and testis including retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) as well as being comfortable with active surveillance of many cancers where appropriate. He has also helped develop focal therapy of the prostate over the past decade to minimise treatment harm to men with prostate cancer.