James Kench
ICCR President & Director - Representing The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA)
Professor James Kench, MB BS, BSc(Med), FRCPA.
Local Pathology Director, Sydney Local Health District, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Head of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Professor James Kench, MB BS, DMedSc, FRCPA, graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1986. He commenced training in anatomical pathology in 1988 at Westmead Hospital then completed his training at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney NSW, before being awarded his Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 1993. He is also a member of the International Academy of Cytology and International Fellow of the College of American Pathologists.
After working as a staff specialist at St Vincent’s and Westmead Hospitals, in 2009 Professor Kench became Clinical Director of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology (formerly Anatomical Pathology) at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, where he is currently also Local Pathology Director-RPA. He was appointed as a Clinical Professor at University of Sydney in 2009 and has subspecialty expertise in prostatic, pancreatic and hepatic pathology. Professor Kench has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles plus several books and book chapters, including co-authorship of the Prostate Cancer chapter in the 2022 WHO Blue Book for Urinary and Male Genital Tumours. He has a longstanding research collaboration with the Prostate Cancer Group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and is an Executive member of the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre-NSW.
Professor Kench has been actively involved in structured reporting initiatives since 2008, including as lead author for the national pathology guidelines on prostate cancer, Chair of the National Structured Pathology Reporting Project for 4 years from 2014, member of the ICCR Dataset Steering Committee for 8 years and ICCR Board for 4 years. He is also a member of the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) Scientific Advisory Committee, the Australian Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry Steering Committee and its Hepatobiliary Subcommittee, and the NSW Cancer Council Prostate and Colorectal Cancer Expert Advisory Panels.