Roger Kirby

Roger Kirby was born in Buckinghamshire to Janet and Kenneth Kirby. His father was a professor of biochemistry and fellow of the Royal Society who worked as head of cell chemistry at what was then called the Chester Beatty Research Institute. He died in 1967 at the age of 49, when Kirby was 15.[1][2][3][4]

He attended Berkhamsted School for Boys with his older and younger brother, where the three also played on the school's rugby team.[1][5]

Kirby graduated in medical sciences from St John's College, Cambridge, in 1972 and completed his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital (later merged with University College), where he was inspired by lead urologist Richard Turner-Warwick. He gained his MB BChir from Cambridge in 1975, with a distinction in surgery, the decisive turning point that led him towards surgery rather than cardiology.[3][5][6][7]

His first house job was at the Cheltenham General Hospital, where he worked with surgeon Peter Boreham, who encouraged him to pursue the field of urology and particularly prostate disease.[8] Subsequently, he took up posts at Brighton, Wolverhampton, and Gloucester.[3][5][9] His other teachers have included Ken Shuttleworth and Wyndam Lloyd Davies.[8] He passed in the final Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in 1979.[5][10] Kirby later described how a number of people in the 1970s had not heard of the prostate gland. During this time, he had attended to a number of people with large prostates that blocked urine flow and a number of people with inflammation of the prostate, which caused pain. When he did see someone with prostate cancer, only two basic surgical options were available on offer: removing the testicles or an operation that removed the middle of the prostate, the latter being performed to improve the flow of urine.[11]

In 1985, Kirby spent five weeks at the Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA, on a Royal College of Surgeons travelling scholarship.[5][12] Earlier, as a research fellow at the Middlesex, he met Clare Fowler and together they published research articles on how nerves work to control the muscles used to control passing urine, work that formed the basis of both Fowler's future contributions to continence issues in people with neurological conditions, and Kirby's doctoral thesis.[13] In 1986 they published their findings that disproved the then widely held belief that retention of urine in some women was psychological or hysterical.[14] The condition came to be known as Fowler's syndrome and has been found to be potentially treatable.[13] In the same year he gained his MD from Cambridge,[7] and was elected the Hunterian professorship with a lecture titled "The Investigation and Management of the Neurogenic Bladder".[5][12][15] It was published in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where Kirby showed how the use of EMG could distinguish between people with pelvic nerve injury, distal autonomic neuropathy, progressive autonomic failure– multiple system atrophy, and idiopathic Parkinson's disease, thus influencing the selection of people for surgery via the urethra.[16] In 1986, as the PSA test was coming into use, Kirby was also appointed consultant urologist at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and later took over from John Wickham.[3][11]

Kirby subsequently became one of the first urologists in the UK to perform open radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancers.[6][17] After watching American urologist Patrick C. Walsh at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, perform open radical prostatectomies for prostate cancer, while simultaneously preserving pelvic nerves, he became a staunch advocate of the procedure.[11] In 1995, he became a professor of urology and director of Postgraduate Education at St George's Hospital, London.[6] By 2005, using a suprapubic transverse incision,[3] Kirby was performing around 130 of these operations a year. Most of these procedures were performed with colleague and anaesthetist Peter Amoroso.[11][18]

In 1995, Kirby helped found two charities: Prostate Research Campaign and The British Urological Foundation, later renamed The Urology Foundation, which was established with funds from the British Journal of Urology International and the British Association of Urological Surgeons.[22] His fundraising activities have included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, trekking in Nepal and cycling across the Andes.[6][23] By 2005, he had completed three London Marathons.[11]

In 2010, he stepped down as chairman of Prostate UK to become trustee of the newly merged charity Prostate Action.[7] The Prostate Cancer Charity founded by Jonathan Waxman subsequently merged with Prostate Action in 2012 to form one organisation under the title of Prostate Cancer UK,[24] of which Kirby became vice-president.[25] He is also affiliated with the King Edward VII's Hospital, a charity-registered private hospital in Marylebone, west London.[26]

Some of his fundraising activities have been accomplished with his late colleague, John M. Fitzpatrick[27] and in 2018, he hiked with Sir Marcus Setchell.[28] Kirby's efforts to raise awareness of prostate issues have also involved raising significant funds for prostate charities.[7]

Royal Society of Medicine 1 Wimpole Street

In 2005, Kirby was jointly awarded the St Peter's Medal by the British Association of Urological Surgeons.[4][29]

Until 2015, he was council member, secretary and trustee of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. Subsequently, he was elected president of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine RSM for 2016/17.[6]

In 2016 he received the Royal College of Surgeons' Clement Price Thomas Award.[6][30] In the same year, he stepped down from the board of trustees of the Urology Foundation and was subsequently made its life president,[31] and took up the role of chair of the academic board of the RSM,[6] In 2019, he was elected to become president of the RSM for 2020, succeeding Sir Simon Wessely.[32][33] His inauguration as president of the RSM took place on 28 July 2020.[8][34]

Kirby married Jane, who edited Country Living magazine before working as the business manager at her husband's clinic.[35] They have three children including Joe Kirby who is a teacher[36] and Vanessa Kirby,[37] who is an actress.[38]

Kirby has published more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific publications, authored 68 books and founded two scientific journals: Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases and Trends in Urology and Men's Health.[6][42] He has also been an associate editor of the British Journal of Urology International.[9]

In The Prostate: Small Gland Big Problem, one section was written by Clive Turner, who had undergone a radical prostatectomy himself and subsequently counselled other men considering the same option.[11] In his textbook Men's Health, dedicated to premature death in men, particularly his father, he, his brother Mike Kirby and colleague Culley C. Carson III, attempt to address the gender gap in mortality.[2] His book Fast facts: Prostate Cancer entered its tenth edition in 2020.[43]

• Professor Roger Kirby talking about a prostate healthy diet
• The Urology Foundation (TUF)fundraising cycle journey, A team of fundraising enthusiasts (including Roger Kirby, Editor of Trends in Urology & Men's Health) cycled from Agra to Jaipur in Rajasthan, India to raise funds for The Urology Foundation (TUF)
• 1: Episode 1: Prostate Cancer - What is it, what are the symptoms, how is it diagnosed and how is it treated?, Susan Burnett interviews leading prostate cancer expert Professor Roger Kirby
• From doctor to patient: Three urologists face prostate cancer