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CHAPEL HILL, NC – Raj Pruthi, MD, has been promoted to chief of the Division of Urologic Surgery within the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Pruthi’s appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2011. The former division chief, Culley C. Carson III, MD, will continue to be an active part of UNC Urology participating in full-time patient care, teaching, and research. He will remain Rhodes Distinguished Professor of Urology and associate chair of the Department of Surgery.

In addition to his new role as division chief, Pruthi is an associate professor of surgery and director of urologic oncology. He also serves as disease group leader for the Genitourinary Oncology program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Pruthi is a graduate of Stanford University and received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. Following medical school he completed his residency at Stanford University with two years as a general surgery intern and resident, and five years as a urology resident. During that time he also spent one year as a fellow at Stanford University, specializing in prostate cancer in the Department of Urology.

His clinical and research interests are in urologic oncology and include bladder, kidney, and prostate cancer, and he has published over 120 peer review publications in theses areas. In addition, his clinical interests include minimally-invasive treatments for urologic malignancies including the application of laparoscopic and robotic technologies to radical surgical procedures. Pruthi’s research interests include the study of inflammatory pathways in the development and treatment of prostate, bladder, and kidney cancers as well as the pre-clinical and clinical study minimally-invasive therapeutic strategies, including laparoscopic and robotic approaches, in urologic oncology.

In addition to serving as a consultant and reviewer for numerous publications, he is also on the editorial board for several journals including the Journal of Urology, World Journal of Urology, Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, Online Journal of Urology, Open Surgical Oncology Journal, amongst others. Pruthi currently serves on a number of institutional, regional, and national teaching and professional capacities, and is currently a member of the American Urologic Associations Guidelines on the Management of Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer, the American College of Surgeons Advisory Panel for Urology, and the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association.