Benjamin J Challacombe BSc. MS FRCS (Urol)

Mr. Challacombe is a consultant urological surgeon with a special interest in the minimally invasive treatments of prostatic diseases. He is the Guy’s & St Thomas’ surgical tutor, a UK robotic surgery mentor, and ran The European Robotic Urology Society Meeting (ERUS) in London in September 2012. He trained at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, The Royal Marsden Hospital and with Professor Tony Costello at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he was awarded the prestigious Rowan Nicks Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

He has learnt both laparoscopic and robotic radical prostatectomy and performed the first randomised trial of telerobotics between Guy’s and Johns Hopkins Hospitals, in 2002. This formed part of his Master of Surgery thesis on robotic surgery and telemedicine. Ben is associate editor of the BJUI, with over 140 peer-reviewed publications and 20 book chapters on minimally invasive and robotic urological techniques.

He has performed over 400 robotic radical prostatectomies, 160 robotic partial nephrectomies and also performs dynamic prostate brachytherapy and holmium laser prostatectomy (HoLEP) within the Guy’s Urology Centre. He has also helped to develop both the robotic cystectomy and robotic partial nephrectomy programmes at Guy’s Hospital. His current research interests are in robotic surgery training, trans-perineal template biopsy techniques, active surveillance of low risk prostate cancer, sentinel node techniques and haptic probe development in robotic surgery.

Ben has swum the English Channel for Prostate Cancer UK, for whom he regularly lectures, and is fortunate to have a very supportive surgical wife and three energetic boys.