Mr. Ben Challacombe

Mr Benjamin J Challacombe BSc. MS FRCS (Urol) Title: Consultant Urological Surgeon and Honorary Reader/Associate Professor, with a special interest in robotic surgery and minimally invasive urological cancer treatments. Institution: Guy’s and St Thomas Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London Ben is a consultant urological surgeon with a special interest in the minimally invasive treatments of prostatic diseases. He is the Guy’s & St Thomas’ MDM urological cancer and clinical robotics lead, a UK robotic surgery mentor and robotic fellowship director. 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 was the British Association of Urology (BAUS) Oncology Section Chairman 2018-20 and in 2019 was awarded the BAUS Golden Cystoscope for contributions to British urology within 10 years of consultant appointment. He is an RSM urology section committee member and was secretary 2019-20. He has learnt both laparoscopic and robotic surgical approaches 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 has been associate editor of the BJUI 2012-2020, with over 260 peer-reviewed publications (h index 60), 4 books, and 25 book chapters on minimally invasive and robotic urological techniques. He has performed over 1500 robotic radical prostatectomies and over 1400 robotic upper tract procedures including 760 robotic partial nephrectomies and also performs holmium laser prostatectomy (HoLEP) with an experience of over 1500 cases. He has also helped to develop both the robotic cystectomy and robotic partial nephrectomy programmes at Guy’s Hospital and is the highest volume surgeon for both robotic partial nephrectomy and upper tract robotics in the UK. 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 3D modelling development in robotic surgery. Ben is a Trustee of The Urology Foundation Charity, for whom he regularly lectures, and is fortunate to have a very supportive surgical wife and three energetic boys.