1. Roger Kirby is prominent as a writer on men's health and prostate disease, the founding editor of the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases and Trends in Urology and Men's Health and a fundraiser for prostate disease charities, best known for his use of the da Vinci surgical robot for laparoscopic prostatectomy in the treatment of prostate cancer.
Roger Kirby is a co-founder and president of the charity The Urology Foundation, vice-president of the charity Prostate Cancer UK, trustee of the King Edward VII's Hospital, and from 2020 to 2024 was president of the Royal Society of Medicine, London.
Roger Kirby later took over from John Wickham and subsequently became one of the first urologists in the UK to perform open radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancers.
Roger Kirby was born in Buckinghamshire to Janet Hazel Sturgess, born in Aston, Warwickshire, and Kenneth Stanley Kirby, born in Whitby, Yorkshire.
Roger Kirby's 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.
Roger Kirby died in 1967 at the age of 49, when Kirby was 15.
Roger Kirby attended Berkhamsted School for Boys with his older and younger brother, where the three played on the school's rugby team.
Roger Kirby graduated in medical sciences from St John's College, Cambridge, in 1972 and completed his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital, where he was inspired by lead urologist Richard Turner-Warwick.
Roger Kirby 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.
Roger Kirby passed in the final Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in 1979.
Roger Kirby later described how a number of people in the 1970s had not heard of the prostate gland.
In 1985, Roger Kirby spent five weeks at the Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA, on a Royal College of Surgeons travelling scholarship.
In 1986, as the PSA test was coming into use, Roger Kirby was appointed consultant urologist at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and later took over from John Wickham.
Roger Kirby subsequently became one of the first urologists in the UK to perform open radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancers.
In 2005, Roger Kirby established The Prostate Centre in Wimpole Street, London.
Roger Kirby had previously been watching the development of robotic prostatectomies, and in 2005, for the purpose of performing laparoscopic prostatectomies, a da Vinci surgical robot was acquired.
In 1995, Roger 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.
Roger Kirby is affiliated with the King Edward VII's Hospital, a charity-registered private hospital in Marylebone, west London.
In 2005, Roger Kirby was jointly awarded the St Peter's Medal by the British Association of Urological Surgeons.
Roger Kirby married Jane Cooper, who edited Country Living magazine before working as the business manager at her husband's clinic.
Roger Kirby checked his PSA annually, constructing his own personal PSA slope which remained low.
Roger Kirby stated that he "hope that the openness about our own diagnoses and management will help to dispel the taboo that still haunts this most common of cancers of men".
Roger 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.
Roger Kirby has been an associate editor of the British Journal of Urology International.