Dr Raji Kooner - Profile, CV and Qualifications

Name and Registration

• Name: Dr Raji Kooner
• AHPRA Registration: MED0001133018

Qualifications

• MBBS (Hons) - University of Sydney, 1985
• FRACS (Urology) - Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons

Postgraduate Training

• General Surgery training - completed 1994
• Urological Surgical Fellowship - completed 1996, across teaching hospitals in Sydney
• Clinical Research Fellow and Temporary Urology Consultant - Charing Cross and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals, London, UK, 1997-1998
• Single Port Robotic Surgery - advanced one-on-one laboratory training, Intuitive Surgical Headquarters, Sunnyvale, California, USA

Current Appointments

• Consultant Urologist, St Vincent's Public Hospital
• Principal, Urology NSW
• Head of Urology, Mater Hospital, North Sydney
• Consultant Urologist, Southern Highlands Private Hospital
• Consultant Urologist, East Sydney Private Hospital
• Urological and Robotic Surgeon, St Vincent's Private Hospital - Department of Urology
• Academic appointments - University of New South Wales; University of Notre Dame Australia
• Multidisciplinary team member - The Kinghorn Cancer Centre Urological Cancer MDT

Consulting Locations

• Main rooms - Suite 1303, Level 13, St Vincent's Private Hospital, 406 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
• St Vincent's Clinic - Suites 905 & 902, 438 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst
• Mater Clinic, North Sydney - Suite 1.12, Level 1, 3–9 Gillies Street
• Bowral Office - Suite 9, 70 Bowral Street, Bowral (Southern Highlands Private Hospital admitting)
• East Sydney Private Hospital - 75 Crown Street, Woolloomooloo

Clinical Interests and Expertise

Prostate cancer

• Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (multi-port and single port)
• Open and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
• Focal therapy - NanoKnife (irreversible electroporation)
• Transperineal MRI / ultrasound-fusion guided biopsy
• PSMA PET-directed staging and management

Benign prostatic enlargement (BPH)

• UroLift
• Rezum water-vapour therapy
• iTind (Temporary Implantable Nitinol Device)
• Holmium (HoLEP) and Moses laser enucleation
• GreenLight laser prostatectomy

Kidney, upper tract and adrenal surgery

• Robotic and laparoscopic nephrectomy and partial nephrectomy
• Complex kidney stone surgery
• Adrenalectomy

General urology

• Bladder cancer
• Testicular cancer
• Erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence
• Urological infections

Awards and Academic Recognition

• Sir John Loewenthal Prize - Surgery and Clinical Surgery, University of Sydney.
• Clinical Demonstrator, Master Classes in Advanced Endourology - World Congress of Endourology, Edinburgh 1997; Australasian Urological Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Sydney 2000.

Pioneering Firsts and Leadership

• Performed the first robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in NSW and completed over 75% of NSW cases in the first year of the programme.
• Performed the first robot-assisted nephrectomy for kidney cancer in Australia.
• Performed the first robot-assisted pyeloplasty for PUJ obstruction in NSW.
• Performed the first robot-assisted adrenal gland removal in Australia.
• Pioneered the Robotic Prostate Cancer Surgical Programme in NSW.
• Completed over 3,000 robotic urological procedures to date, formally recognised by Intuitive Surgical / Device Technologies in November 2025 - in over 3,000 radical robot-assisted prostatectomies, no patient has required a blood transfusion.
• One of the first surgeons in Australia to perform transperineal ultrasound / MRI-fusion guided prostate biopsy.
• First pure Single Port robotic prostate procedure in NSW - 15 January 2026, supported by Dr Ryan Nelson (USA).
• Routinely uses intraoperative frozen-section pathology during robotic prostatectomy - a technique very few surgeons in Australia employ.
• Implanting iTind since September 2022 - has performed more than 50 iTind procedures, the largest series in the Asia-Pacific region, formally recognised by Olympus Australia & New Zealand in August 2025.
• Under his leadership, the Mater Hospital, North Sydney, has performed the largest number of iTind procedures in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Performed over 200 Rezum water-vapour therapy procedures, formally recognised by Boston Scientific in June 2023.
• Performed over 150 UroLift System procedures, formally recognised by the Teleflex Academy in April 2025.

A Moment in History

Dr Raji Kooner stands in front of the da Vinci surgical system as painted for the 2011 Archibald Prize by 2011 Sulman Prize winner and former GP Peter Smeeth.

The work quietly records an early chapter in Australian robotic urology - the surgeon and the machine that together carried the first robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in NSW into routine clinical practice.

Teaching, Mentoring and International Training

Personally mentored by, and regularly visits, leading international pioneers in robotic and laparoscopic urological surgery, including:

• Dr Vip Patel - Orlando, FL, USA
• Dr Mani Menon - Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit
• Dr Thomas Ahlering - UCLA, Los Angeles
• Dr Bertrand Guillonneau - Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York
• Dr Claude Abbou - Créteil Hospital, Paris
• Dr Chris Eden - Basingstoke, UK

Mentors and proctors surgeons in robotic urological surgery in Australia and internationally. Actively involved in prostate cancer research; regularly reviews his own operative data and outcomes, and presents results at national and international meetings.

Invited Presentations and Conference Activity

• World Urology Conference (SIU), 2004 - presentation of open radical prostatectomy outcome data.
• Laparoscopic Prostatectomy Conference, Sydney, 2004 - organised by Dr Kooner with international expert Dr Bertrand Guillonneau.
• NSW Urology Conference, 2006 - laparoscopic prostatectomy outcomes.
• Australasian Urological Society Annual Scientific Meeting, February 2007.
• Society of International Urology (SIU) Congress, Paris, September 2007 - "Successful Implementation of a Robotic Prostatectomy Program: A No-Complication Learning Curve" (Kooner R, et al.).
• Australasian Urological Society Meetings, 2008 and 2009 - robot-assisted prostatectomy outcomes.
• European Association of Urology Annual Congress, 2009 - robot-assisted prostatectomy outcomes.
• 1st Asia Pacific Prostate MRI Conference, Melbourne, August 2014 - invited speaker.
• EAU Robotic Urology Section (ERUS) Annual Meeting, 2019 - Dr Kooner's educational video used as the main teaching video.

View selected presentation PDFs →

Publications and Research

Dr Kooner has co-authored peer-reviewed studies in prostate cancer imaging, radical prostatectomy outcomes, prostate cancer biology, brachytherapy and urological oncology.

• 2026 - Prospective Comparison of ⁶⁴Cu SAR-bisPSMA vs ⁶⁸Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT for Biochemical Recurrence of Prostate Cancer Following Radical Prostatectomy (Co-PSMA Trial). European Urology.
• 2025 - Real-world clinical outcomes of oligometastatic prostate cancer using SBRT: An Australian experience. BJUI Compass.
• 2021 - The Additive Diagnostic Value of PSMA PET/CT to Multiparametric MRI Triage in the Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer (PRIMARY): A Prospective Multicentre Study. European Urology.
• 2019 - Diagnostic accuracy of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET and multiparametric MRI for intermediate-grade intra-prostatic prostate cancer using whole-mount pathology. BJU International.
• 2019 - ⁶⁸Ga-HBEDD PSMA-11 PET/CT staging prior to radical prostatectomy: diagnostic and predictive value for the biochemical response to surgery. British Journal of Radiology.
• 2006 - Aberrant neuropeptide Y and macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 expression are early events in prostate cancer development and are associated with poor prognosis. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
• 2005 - Lower levels of nuclear β-catenin predict for a poorer prognosis in localized prostate cancer. International Journal of Cancer.
• 2004 - Loss of BMP2, Smad8 and Smad4 expression in prostate cancer progression. The Prostate.
• 2004 - Membranous expression of secreted frizzled-related protein 4 predicts for good prognosis in localized prostate cancer and inhibits PC3 cellular proliferation in vitro. Clinical Cancer Research.
• 2003 - Prognostic significance of Gleason pattern in patients with Gleason score 7 prostate carcinoma. Cancer.
• 2003 - Expression of the zinc transporter ZnT4 is decreased in the progression from early prostate disease to invasive prostate cancer. Oncogene.
• 2003 - Treatment of localized prostate cancer using a combination of high dose rate Iridium-192 brachytherapy and external beam irradiation: initial Australian experience. Australasian Radiology.
• 2003 - Prognostic significance of preoperative factors in localized prostate carcinoma treated with radical prostatectomy. Cancer.
• 2001 - Prognostic significance of pathologic features in localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy: implications for staging systems and predictive models. Journal of Clinical Oncology.
• 2001 - Frequent loss of estrogen receptor-β expression in prostate cancer. Cancer Research.
• 1998 - Vascular interventions during post-chemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph-node dissection for metastatic testis cancer. European Journal of Surgical Oncology.
• 1998 - Wedge resection of pulmonary metastases from cancer of the testis or kidney using a vascular staple device. British Journal of Urology.

Invited book and proceedings contributions:

• Kooner R, Stephenson R. Minimally Invasive Prostate Surgery. St Vincent's Clinic Proceedings 2015; Vol 23(1). PDF
• Stricker P, Kooner R. New Technologies for Prostate Cancer - Robotic Radical Prostatectomy and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. St Vincent's Clinic Proceedings 2007.

View the full publications list with authors, citations and PubMed links →

School Achievements

• Graduated with honours from Gymea High School - Higher School Certificate 453/500 (Top 1%).
• School Prefect - Gymea High School.

Sporting Achievements

• NSW Combined High Schools Blue Award for outstanding performance in sport.
• Sportsman of the Year - Gymea High School.
• Hockey - NSW Combined High Schools Hockey Team (three years, Vice Captain 1979); NSW Junior Hockey Team (under-15) 1976; NSW Men's Indoor Hockey Squad 1978; Captain, School Hockey Team (State Semi Finalists) 1979; Sutherland Shire Men's First Grade 1977-1986 (Player of the Year 1980); St George Men's First Grade 1993-1996.
• Cricket - Captain, School Cricket Team 1979; Sutherland Shire Representative Cricket Team (under-16, under-21, under-23).
• Table Tennis - School Table Tennis Team, State Finalists 1979.
• Other sporting interests include golf, tennis, squash and snow skiing.

Professional Memberships and Affiliations

• Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS - Urology)
• Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ)
• Australian Medical Association (AMA)
• Urological and Robotic Surgeon, St Vincent's Private Hospital
• Active member, Kinghorn Cancer Centre Urological Cancer MDT
• Clinical affiliations: St Vincent's Private Hospital; St Vincent's Clinic; Mater Hospital North Sydney; Southern Highlands Private Hospital; St Luke's Private Hospital; East Sydney Private Hospital

Certificates of Achievement

Procedural volume milestones referenced above have been formally recognised by the device manufacturers. The certificates below are reproduced here in full.

Contact

• Phone: 02 8382 6980
• Fax: 02 8382 6991
• Email: Raji.Kooner@svha.org.au
• Web: www.urologynsw.com.au