Emerging Leaders in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases

Michael Baboudjian (M.D.) works as a urologist in Marseille, France. After completing his residency, he did a one-year fellowship at the Fundacio Puigvert under the mentorship of Dr. Alberto Breda. His research focus on prostate cancer and he is an associate member of the French Prostate Cancer Group (CCAFU). Active surveillance is one of his main research topics, with the aim of expanding its indications. He is also interested in the management of male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and is an associate member of the EAU Men’s LUTS panel. Finally, green urology and sustainability are translational research topics that he hopes to focus on in the coming years.

Hazem Elmansy is an Associate Professor, Program Director of the Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery Fellowship program, and Medical Lead of Surgical Research at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in Canada. He completed his Urology residency at McGill University and has training in endourology, including Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy for complex stone management, and laser surgery for the prostate. Dr. Elmansy is NOSM’s representative for the Canadian Association of Chairs of Surgical Research, the recipient of the 2023 Clinical Scholar Award and four Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association (NOAMA) grants. In October 2017, Dr. Elmansy successfully performed the first Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate procedure in Ontario, Canada. He has a strong passion for research and is a co-author of the updated Canadian Urological Association (CUA) guidelines for ureteric stones and male lower urinary tract symptoms/benign prostatic hyperplasia.

View the webinar recording of Dr Elmansy presenting on their article published in the collection entitled "Top-down vs. Traditional Anatomical Endoscopic Enucleation of the Prostate (AEEP): Does the direction of enucleation matter?".

Marlon Perera is a urologic surgeon in Melbourne, Australia practicing at Peter MacCallum Cancer Center and Austin Health. Dr Perera completed his urologic training in Australia and a SUO Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, USA). Dr Perera has a keen interest in academics and has >160 peer-reviewed publications, a PhD (Urology, University of Melbourne) and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Among his publications, several have been featured heavily in the European, American and British Urologic guidelines. Dr Perera has also been awarded numerous prizes including the 2023 Clinical Research Award at MSKCC, the Villis Marshall Prize (Best Scientific Paper at USANZ), RC Bennet Medal (for Best Scientific Paper at RACS, 2017).

Vérane Achard is a specialist in Radiation Oncology at the Fribourg Cantonal hospital and teaches at the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. After obtaining her master’s degree in Engineering at the INP-Phelma in Grenoble, France, she finished her PhD in Physics for Life Sciences at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in 2009. She completed residencies at the departments of Radiation Oncology of the Grenoble Alpes University Hospital in France, and the University Hospitals of Geneva in Switzerland, before obtaining her MD in Radiation Oncology in 2019. The fields of interest of Dr. Achard include high-precision radiotherapy techniques (SBRT, IGRT, VMAT) and genitourinary cancer treatment. She is part of the Young-Early Career Investigator Radiation Oncology Scientific Council of the European Organization of Research and Treatment against Cancer (EORTC) and is the PI of an EORTC study investigating the role of radiotherapy in the non-muscle invasive bladder cancer setting.

Fabio Turco is a medical oncologist that finished his residency in October 2023. He was trained at the San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital (Turin) under the mentorship of Prof. Buttigliero. He immediately developed an important interest for prostate cancer (PC). He mainly focused his clinical visits on patients with PC as well as patients enrolled phase 2/3 trials. During his training he spent 14 months at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) under the supervision of Prof. Gillessen, where he continued his focus on PC, and gained experience in the early phase trial unit. Until the end of December 2023 he will carry out a fellowship at the Royal Marsden in London under the supervision of Prof. James where he was assigned to a research  project within the STAMPEDE platform. From 2024 onwards he will start to work as a consultant at the IOSI under the lead of Prof. Gillessen. 

Alberto Martini is a fellow in Urologic Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. He is a graduate of the University of Florence and completed his Urology training at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy. He holds professional experiences in the USA (NYC, Houston), Europe (Florence, Milan, Dresden, Prague, Toulouse) and Australia (Melbourne). He is a member of the EAU-YAU working group on Prostate Cancer, an associate member of the scientific working group of the Robotic Urology Section of the EAU, and an associate member of the EAU Bladder Cancer Guidelines. He has received national and international awards, including the Hans Marberger award at EAU22. Dr. Martini is passionate about research and applying innovative methods to improve healthcare approach and patient outcomes.

Paolo Dell’Oglio currently works as staff urologist at Niguarda Hospital in Milan (Italy). He completed his residency program at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and along the years Dr Dell’Oglio collected several utmost abroad experiences. First, a 1-year clinical research fellowship at the University of Montréal (Canada). Second, a 1-year clinical fellowship at the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris in Paris (France), mainly concerning advanced laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Third, a 2-year clinical fellowship at the O.L.V. Hospital and ORSI Academy in Aalst (Belgium), where he completed his training in robotic surgery. Fourth, a 2-month intensive training in HoLEP in Guadalajara (Mexico). He was awarded for the ‘Best paper published on clinical research in the urological literature in 2021’ at the 36th EAU congress and for the ‘Best paper in Robotic Surgery published in European Urology in 2022’ at the 37th EAU congress. He is Associate in the EAU Guidelines Office, full member of the ERUS Education Working group and board member of the Young Academic Urologists in Robotic Surgery. Doctor Dell’Oglio routinary performs highly skill-demanding robotic surgeries for urologic cancers and is persistently active in clinical research, with more than 200 original articles been published, and a doctorate on image-guided surgery achieved at the University of Leiden and at the Netherlands Cancer Institute of Amsterdam.

Nicholas Zorko is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center specializing in genitourinary oncology and cellular therapies. He treats a unique combination of patients consisting of both genitourinary oncology and bone marrow transplant/cellular therapy recipients. He completed his MD and PhD at The Ohio State University and his clinical residency and fellowship at the University of Minnesota. His translational laboratory focuses on the development of natural killer (NK) cell engager molecules and off-the-shelf, engineered NK cells to treat prostate cancer and other GU malignancies. He is a 2022 Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator and the recipient of a United States Department of Defense Early Investigator Research Award. His clinical trial work includes several industry-sponsored Phase I immune engager and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell products to treat late-stage prostate cancers and other refractory solid tumors and a pending investigator-initiated NK cell engager trial.