Mr Tim O'Brien MA DM FRCS (Urol) is a Consultant Urological surgeon who was awarded the golden telescope of the British Association of Urological Surgeons: the highest award that can be given to a young consultant urologist in Britain.

His future efforts saw him lead the team that set up the urology centre at Guy’s, a project that utilised substantial resources. His endeavours have transformed the way urology patients are assessed and treated at Guy's and St Thomas'.

It should come as no surprise that his expertise and achievements have been internationally recognised. To this day, Mr O’Brien continues to expand his already vast expanse of clinical knowledge through both research, board meetings and time in the clinic.

He has subspeciality expertise in kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and testis cancer. He receives large numbers of referrals from all over the South of England for complex kidney cancer surgery, in particular removal of very large life-threatening kidney cancers which have invaded the inferior vena cava or the heart. He has now also performed over 200 partial nephrectomies (kidney cancer removal with preservation of kidney function). He has taught on these techniques nationally and across Europe.

He is the surgeon in the Guy’s unit who performs the retroperitoneal lymph node dissections for men with residual testis cancer after intensive chemotherapy. In 2012 in conjunction with Dr James Pattisson he established a multidisciplinary service at Guys for patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis, in an attempt to make progress in the treatment of this complex disease.

In bladder cancer his team have developed and improved the technique of blue light cystoscopy (photodynamic assisted resection) which aims to improve the completeness of the initial endoscopic surgery of bladder tumours. The team have published numerous papers on the technique; won a prestigious award in 2011 from the European Association of Urology for research in the technique; and Mr O’Brien was invited in 2010 to the FDA in Washington DC to make the case for approval of the technique in the United States.

In 2011 he was elected in a national ballot to be Chairman of the section of oncology of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). In this role he leads the efforts to improve urological cancer surgery across the UK.

Diseases, Medical Tests and Treatments

Retroperitoneal fibrosis

Kidney Cancer

Bladder cancer

• Kidney cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Diagnostic urology
• Retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF)
• Infection control
• Renal disease / failure
• Andrology
• Vasectomy (including reversal)