Hendrik Van Poppel
Chairman, European Association of Urology (EAU) Policy Office
Hendrik Van Poppel, MD, PhD, graduated in General Surgery in 1980, in Urology in 1983 and did his postgraduate training in London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Mainz and Rotterdam. In 1988, he obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences. He became a Fellow of the European Board of Urology (FEBU) in 1992. He became full Professor of Urology at the KU Leuven in 1993, and Chair of the department of Urology in Leuven in 2002. He was visiting Professor in Aachen, Munster, ‘s Hertogenbosch, Linz, Barcelona, Jönköping, Marburg, Cardiff, London, Heidelberg, Mainz, Timisoara, Surabaya and Vienna where he demonstrated live uro-oncologic surgery. Other live demonstrations took place in Nijmegen, Zaragoza, L’Aquila, Brussels, Milan, Torino, Tbilisi, Djakovié, La Vallette and Alexandria.
He described the original surgical technique for prepubic urethrectomy, the percutaneous gastrostomy, the lumbar approach to splenectomy during orthotopic kidney transplantation, and the Leuven “N”pouch for bladder substitution. His clinic was focused on Onco-urological surgery. He performed more than 3000 radical prostatectomies and countless major open oncological surgeries for kidney, bladder, prostate, testis and penile cancer. He was promotor, co-promotor or jury member of more than 35 doctoral theses at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
He was co-founder and chairman of the European Study Group on Sexual and Urological Disorders in Multiple Sclerosis (SUDIMS) between 1991 and 1995. He was Treasurer of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) GU Group between 1997 and 2011, Board Member of the EORTC 2004-2008, President of the Belgian Association of Urology in 2009-2011, and Treasurer of the International Consultation on Urological Diseases (ICUD) between 2009 and 2012. He was co-founder of the European Uro-oncology Group (EUOG) where he was treasurer and still is board member. He was a founding member of EuropaUomo, the European Prostate Cancer Coalition, in 2014 and is still the Chairman of its Scientific Committee. He became chairman of the Cancer Patients Europe (CPE) Scientific and Advisory Committee in 2024. He is founding member of the Let’s Talk Prostate Cancer initiative (LTPC) and belongs to its expert group up to now.
He was Director of the Education Office of the EAU, the European School of Urology (ESU) 2004-2012, and became EAU Adjunct Secretary General, responsible for Education in 2012.
He is a member of several international scientific organisations as the American Urological Association (AUA), the Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Urologie (DGU) and the American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons (AAGUS). He was Board Member of the European Society of Oncologic Urology (ESOU) and the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO). He was co-founder and is now Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Europa Uomo, Faculty Member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and Board Member of ECO until 2020 on behalf of the EAU. He Co-Chairs the ECO’s Inequalities Network Workstream on “Men and Cancer” together with Peter Baker,(GAMH, Global Alliance for Men’s Health).
He received his European Parliament Accreditation in 2022. He is a Board Member and General Assembly representative for EAU in ORSI Academy and Member of the Executive Board of the J. De Wever Prostaatkankerfonds of KU Leuven.
He attended more than 1200 scientific meetings and gave over a 1000 lectures at national and international podia. He has published 250 papers as first author on uro-oncology and has co-authored >540 and (co-)edited several books on kidney and prostate cancer.
He is reviewer for over 30 urological and uro-oncological journals. He is editorial Board Member of Uro-Oncology, Turkish Journal of Urology, Open Prostate Cancer Journal, Kidney Cancer Journal International, Romanian Journal of Urology, European Urology, Annals of Urology, European Urological Review, African Journal of Urology and Asian Journal of Urology, Belgian Journal of Medical Oncology and Actas Urologicas Españolas, Cancer, Journal of Clinical Medicine, Journal of Men’s Health, Prostate Cancer (Wiley), World Journal of Men’s Health, World Journal of Surgical Oncology, … Since January 2024, he is Section Editor of the Asian Journal of Urology (AJU).
He is honorary member of the Asociatia Romana de Urologie (ARU), the Dutch Urological Association (DUA), the Georgian Urological Association (GUA), the Hungarian Association of Urology (HSU), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Urologie (DGU), the Chinese Urological Association (CUA), the Polish Urological Association (PTU), the Georgian Association of Oncological Urology (GUA), Taiwan Urological Association (TUA), Japanese Urological Association (JUA), Slovak Urological Society (SUS), the Cyprus Urological Association and Propo Finland, the Finnish Prostate cancer foundation.
He received the Folke Edsmyr Award (for outstanding contribution to the progress of cancer research in Urology) in Stockholm in 1999, the Pieter De Mulder Award (for his significant contribution in Urology for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma) in Lyon in 2015, the Francisco Diaz Medal from the Asociasion Espanola Urologia (en meritos a su destacada contribution personal al desarollo de la urologia) in Salamanca in 2015, 1st M.J. Marberger Visiting Professor in Vienna 15-12-2015 and the Distinguished Career Award of the Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU) in Buenos Aires 2016. In 2021 he received the Frans Debruyne Life Time Achievement Award from the EAU. In October 2024 he received the Klaus-Meier-Award from the European Conference of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) for contribution, dedication and lifetime inspiration. In November 2024 he received the Laurent Boccon-Gibod award for academic excellence from the Association of Academic European Urologists (AAEU) in York. In June 2025 he received the Wil de Jongh Medal (Engagement und Patientenorientierung bei Prostatakrebs) from the BPS (Bundesverband Prostatakrebs Selbsthilfe)
In recent years, during his mandate as Adjunct Secretary General of the EAU he built the EAU Patient Office, including the Patient Information Initiative and the EAU Patient Advisory Group (EPAG). In 2021 he set up the EAU Policy Office with its headquarter in Brussels, that he still chairs today. Since 2022 he became coordinator of the PRAISE-U Initiative, a project funded by the European Commission to explore prostate cancer screening in the European Union to come up with recommendations for the EU in 2026.
Updated: December 2025
