Professor David F. Penson

David F. Penson, MD, MPH is the Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology, Director of the Center for Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research and Professor and Chair, Department of Urology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  He obtained his MD from Boston University and completed his urology residency at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He then was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar fellowship at Yale University and also obtained an MPH at Yale. He currently maintains a clinical practice in urologic oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.  His specific research interests include the comparative effectiveness of treatment options in localized prostate cancer and the impact of the disease and its treatment on patients’ quality of life. He has received federal grant funding from the National Cancer Institute, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.  His work has been published in various high-profile journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and the Annals of Internal Medicine.  He previously chaired the National Institutes of Health’s Health Services Outcomes and Delivery (HSOD) study section, which reviews almost all health services research grant submitted to the NIH.  He also maintains a strong interest in health policy and quality improvement. He currently serves as the Secretary of the American Urological Association.

Professor Lee Zhao

Lee C. Zhao, MD, MS, is Professor of Urology and Plastic Surgery at NYU Langone Health. Before medical school, he pursued graduate training in biomedical engineering and served with the Peace Corps. At NYU Langone he co-directs gender-affirming surgery and directs the reconstructive urology fellowship. His clinical practice centers on complex and redo reconstruction of the ureter, urethra, and lower urinary tract, with a particular focus on robotic and single-port surgical approaches. His group described robotic buccal mucosa graft ureteroplasty and robotic appendiceal onlay ureteroplasty for proximal ureteral strictures, as well as robotic posterior urethroplasty. In gender-affirming surgery, he performs robotic peritoneal flap vaginoplasty and both primary and revision procedures as part of a multidisciplinary team. He also performs robotic vaginectomy with gracilis interposition, an approach used to reduce fistula rates after phalloplasty. Dr. Zhao is a member of the Trauma and Urologic Reconstruction Network of Surgeons (TURNS). He co-founded CORRUS, a multi-institutional collaborative on ureteral reconstruction. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and reviews, and he contributed to the American Urological Association (AUA) urethral stricture guideline.

Professor Henk van der Poel

Professor Henk van der Poel is head of the department of urology at the Netherlands Cancer Center in Amsterdam (NL) and endowed-professor the Free-University, Amsterdam (NL). Main focuses of research are the role of image-guided  surgery in the management of urological oncological diseases and the perioperative network cancer-care for prostate cancer. He is editor-in-chief of the Dutch Journal of Urology.

Professor Robert Reiter

Dr. Reiter is the Bing Professor of Urologic Oncology and Chief of the Division of Urologic Oncology. He attended Stanford Medical School, completed his urologic training at Stanford and Baylor College of Medicine, and completed additional fellowship training in urological cancer at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Reiter was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Urologic Oncology branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Reiter is an internationally recognized expert in all areas of prostate cancer management and research. He was among the first to integrate functional MRI imaging and PSMA PET imaging into the diagnosis, surgical management, and care of men with prostate cancer. He was also an early innovator in the field of robotic surgery, and has completed more than 2,500 robotic prostatectomies. In addition to surgical management of prostate cancer, Dr. Reiter has expertise in MRI-guided biopsies to diagnose prostate cancer, focal therapy to treat select individuals, as well as all forms of medical therapy. Dr. Reiter has a particular interest in the multidisciplinary management of men with high-risk prostate cancer, incorporating the latest in genomics, clinical trials, and precision medical therapies into treatment plans in collaboration with UCLA leaders in the areas of radiation, medical and nuclear prostate oncology.

In addition to his broad clinical interests in prostate cancer, Dr. Reiter is a leading researcher in prostate cancer and has led UCLA’s 12 million SPORE grant, which supports work to translate laboratory discoveries into clinical advances, for more than 15 years. Drugs such as enzalutamide and apalutamide, and imaging tools such as PSMA PET, are among the many advances that have emanated from this program. His own laboratory discovered the prostate stem cell antigen and developed antibodies to target this protein, which has led to novel imaging and therapeutic approaches for prostate cancer currently in clinical trials. Dr. Reiter has authored more than 250 papers and lectures nationally and internationally on all aspects of clinical care of men with prostate cancer

Tyler Seibert

Tyler Seibert is an Associate Professor at the University of California San Diego in the Departments of Radiation Medicine, Urology, Bioengineering, and Radiology. He is a board-certified radiation oncologist and cares for patients with aggressive prostate cancer. Dr. Seibert also has a PhD in Bioengineering with a focus on quantitative imaging. His laboratory efforts center on: (1) developing advanced quantitative imaging biomarkers for prostate cancer (with applications to detection of aggressive disease, precision radiotherapy, and assessment of treatment response); (2) developing predictive genetic risk models to guide clinical decision-making for prostate cancer; (3) conducting clinical trials to improve cancer treatment.

Debbie Victor

Debbie has been a Urology nurse since 1991 and an uro-oncology CNS since 2004. She is the BAUN Education Lead and was awarded with both the BJN Urology Nurse of the Year 2019 and TUF Nurse of the Year 2022. Her projects include remote self-monitoring of stable prostate cancer men, nurse led TRUS and then LATP being part of working party with NHS England to write LATP guidelines in 2025. As a Prostate Cancer UK Clinical Champion Debbie created a programme of education for practice nurses making ‘every contact count’ when administering LHRHa. Debbie’s other initiatives include nurse led ARPI clinic and Healthy on Hormones workshop for men starting ADT. She works closely with prostate cancer charities, reviewing literature and was a PCUK Clinical Advisor.

Associate Professor James Porter

A/Professor James Porter, is Director of Robotic Surgery for Providence St. Joseph Health and Swedish Medical Center. He is the most experienced robotic surgeon in the Pacific Northwest and has performed over 5000 robotic procedures. He is Director of the Robotic and Laparoscopic Fellowship in Urology at Swedish Medical Center over the last 22 years. He is recognized as a national and international leader in robotic surgery and is active in teaching robotic surgical techniques to surgeons around the globe. He pioneered the retroperitoneal approach for robotic renal surgery as well as retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for the treatment of testicular cancer.

Supported by:

Bernardo Rocco

In 1998, he graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Milan and in 2003, completed his Residency in Urology at the same institution. He further refined his surgical training through a fellowship at the Global Robotic Institute in Orlando, USA, where he developed robotic surgical skills under the mentorship of the world’s leading expert in prostate surgery, Prof Vipul Patel. After returning to Italy in 2010 he became Director of the School of Robotic Surgery at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, while continuing his collaboration with the United States as a Clinical Instructor at the University of Central Florida. During this period, he obtained the American O-1 Visa, granted for scientific merit. A prominent figure in the international field of robotic surgery, he focuses on the surgical treatment of prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer, as well as on reconstructive procedures such as robotic neobladder surgery. In the context of complex robotic surgery, he has also performed delicate procedures in children and ureteral reconstruction using buccal mucosa. Always committed to functional recovery after oncological surgery, he is the co-author of a surgical technique (“Rocco Stitch”) designed to improve early urinary continence after radical prostatectomy a technique now used worldwide and referenced in European Guidelines and Surgical Atlases. He has also served as Principal Investigator for a project focused on intraoperative assessment of surgical margins during robotic surgery*; aimed at maximizing erectile function recovery after radical prostatectomy, the project was awarded €400,000 in funding within the Emilia-Romagna Region’s targeted Health Research Program. His commitment to the quality of life of patients with prostate cancer is also evident through his active involvement in patient associations: he currently serves as Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Europa Uomo, an organization promoting early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. His work with Europa Uomo includes national awareness and educational initiatives on prostate cancer, the most common malignancy in men. Since 2023, he has been a member of the core team responsible for developing PSA-based screening guidelines promoted by the Lombardy Region, a program soon to be activated at the regional level. He has been invited to more than 60 national and international live-surgery events, performing robotic procedures including complex ones such as advanced prostate cancer with lymph node involvement and complex renal tumors in real time. He was the first surgeon in the world to operate on three different robotic platforms Da Vinci, Hugo RAS, and Versius CMR and the first surgeon in Europe to be certified for the use of a robotic telesurgery system (Toumai). Specifically, he was the first to describe robotic radical prostatectomy using the Versius system and was the first surgeon to perform intracorporeal neobladder reconstruction with the Hugo RAS system. ________________________________________ * “Ex-vivo fluorescence confocal microscopy technique for a fast intraoperative evaluation in different oncological settings: prostate surgery, Mohs surgery for basal cell carcinoma of the skin, breast surgery and gastro-intestinal endoscopy”

Professor Oliver Sartor

Dr. Oliver Sartor is Director of the newly established Transformational Prostate Cancer Research Center in Louisiana, where he will be responsible for both providing direct patient care and continuing his groundbreaking research, with a primary focus on improving both the longevity and quality of life for men diagnosed with prostate cancer. He previously served as Professor of medical oncology and director of radiopharmaceutical trials at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and prior to that as Laborde Professor of Medicine and Urology and Medical Director of the Tulane Cancer Center in New Orleans, LA. An internationally recognized prostate cancer specialist, he earned his MD with honors at Tulane University School of Medicine and completed his training at the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane, and the National Cancer Institute. He subsequently focused his clinical practice and research on prostate malignancies since 1990.

Dr Sartor has led or co-led numerous clinical trials, including multiple pivotal phase III studies that supported US FDA approvals for advanced prostate cancer therapies. His scholarship encompasses more than 500 publications including multiple publications in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet, with significant contributions to the development of cabazitaxel, olaparib, radium-223 and lutetium-177 PSMA-targeted treatments. In recognition of his leadership in practice-changing radiopharmaceutical trials, he was named an honorary member of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in 2023. He has lectured widely on prostate cancer and has been invited to lecture in 34 countries (at last count).

Supported by:

Associate Professor Rafael Sanchez-Salas

Dr. Rafael Sanchez-Salas is an internationally recognised urologic oncologist specializing in image-guided focal therapy and precision robotic surgery for localized prostate cancer. A Valedictorian at Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela), he completed urological training at Universidad Central de Venezuela, followed by fellowships at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Clínica Santa María, and Institut Montsouris, where he served on the faculty for a decade. During his time in Paris, Dr. Sanchez-Salas worked extensively on robotic surgery and the development of partial gland ablation for Prostate Cancer treatment. Now at McGill University, Dr. Sanchez-Salas leads the multi-energy focal therapy program and co-directs the Urologic Oncology Fellowship. With over 300 publications, he serves as President of the Focal Therapy Society, SIU Treasurer, CAU Scientific Director, and AAEU member.

Neal Shore

Neal Shore graduated from Duke University and Duke University Medical School.He completed his general surgery/urology residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He serves as the Medical Director for the START-Carolina Urologic Research Center as well as the Global Director, GU Oncology START Cancer Research. Dr. Shore has conducted more than 500 clinical trials, focusing mainly on genitourinary oncology, and has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and numerous book chapters. He serves on the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Guidelines Committee for Bladder Cancer, as has served on the boards of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network,the APCCC Scientific Steering Committee,Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, and the Duke Global Health Institute. He is the Chair of both the Prostate Cancer Academy and the Bladder/Kidney Cancer Academy, and the co-chair of the annual AUA International Prostate Cancer Forum. He has served/serves on the editorial boards of Urology Times, Chemotherapy Advisor, OncLive, PLOS ONE, Urology Practice,JUOP,Everyday Urology Oncology and World Journal of Urology.He is the Editor-in-Chief of Reviews in Urology . He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Certified Physician Investigator.

Associate Professor Kara Watts

Kara Watts is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Urology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States where she serves as the Director of Quality and Urologic Cancer Services. Associate Professor Watts holds a Green Belt certification in Lean Six Sigma methodology and completed fellowship training in focal therapy for prostate cancer in the UK. Her research and clinical focus include prostate cancer detection and ablation, specifically image-guided focal ablation. She has also lead discussions on the outcomes of emerging modalities and salvage focal ablation for radiorecurrent localized prostate cancer. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies investigating the long-term efficacy of ablative technologies—such as High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) and cryotherapy while simultaneously publishing frameworks for system-wide quality improvement. Her recent work delves into the "value-based care" model seeking to reduce treatment-related morbidity and healthcare disparities through standardized, data-driven diagnostic protocols.

Associate Professor Watts was awarded the 2026 AUA Gold Cystoscope Award acknowledging pioneering research in prostate cancer diagnostics, focal therapy and systematic quality improvement methodologies.