Professor Brett Delahunt

Brett Delahunt is Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and Past Deputy Dean of the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago. In 2018 he was appointed Foreign Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.  He is a Past President of the New Zealand Society of Pathologists (1996-2007), and has also served as President of the International Society of Urological Pathology (2007-2009), the Australasian Division of the International Academy of Pathology (2007-2009) and International Vice President of the International Academy of Pathology (2013-2014) He was a Board Member (2000 to 2013) of the Medical Laboratory Sciences Registration Board (later the Medical Sciences Council of New Zealand) being the inaugural Deputy Chair of the Council (2011 to 2013). In recognition of his services to medical laboratory science he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Sciences. 

He has served as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee (1996-2017) and member of the Board of Management (1996 to 2024) of the Research for Life Foundation and was the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cancer Society of New Zealand from 2001 to 2018, being awarded the Meritorious Service Award - the highest award of the Society in 2016. He is currently Patron of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand and is Chair of the foundation's Scientific Advisory Committee.

His research interests involve all aspects of urologic pathology with emphasis on the diagnosis, classification, genetics and prognosis of prostatic and renal neoplasia. He was co-Chair of the ISUP Consensus Conference on the Handling and Staging of Radical Prostatectomy Specimens (2009), Chair of the ISUP Vancouver Consensus Conference on Renal Neoplasia (2012), Co-convener for the ISUP Prostate Cancer Grading  Consensus Conference (2014) and was Trial pathologist for the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Prostate Cancer Trial.  He has also acted as co- convenor for international conferences that focussed on the controversies in prostate cancer, the classification of testicular tumours, and the role of immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis and outcome prediction of genitourinary malignancies. He has served as an International Member of the College of American Pathologists group to evaluate the critical role of the pathologist in determining eligibility for active surveillance as a management option in patients with prostate cancer.  In 2013 he was appointed a member of the Ministry of Health Working Group for the Prostate Cancer Awareness and Quality Improvement Programme to coordinate the implementation of the recommendations of the Prostate Cancer Taskforce.

Professor Delahunt’s contribution to the field of renal and prostate cancer has seen him serving on the World Health Organization Tumour Classification Panel from 1989 to 2020, In addition to this in 2011 he was appointed a Member of the Union Internationale Contre la Cancer (UICC) TNM Staging Expert Panel for Genitourinary Cancers.  

He has had a major role in the development of cancer reporting protocols for both kidney and prostate cancer. He was kidney cancer lead for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and for the International Collaboration for Cancer Reporting. He also had a role as one of the two International Members on the Genitourinary Pathology Reporting Standards Committee of the College of American Pathologists in the United States. More recently he has been appointed as prostate, bladder, testis and kidney cancer lead for the newly formed governmental New Zealand Cancer Agency to formulate the structured reporting protocols for cancer that are in the process of being implemented nationally.
 
In 2022 Professor Delahunt retired after 14 years as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal PATHOLOGY and has been appointed Editor Emeritus. He was Editor-in-Chief for four editions of the Manual for Use and Interpretation of Pathology Tests. This flagship publication of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia is the core reference guide for Australasian pathologists and receives over 30,000 hits per month.  In addition to this he currently serves on the editorial boards of five mainstream international pathology journals, including the American Journal of Surgical Pathology.

He was appointed Vincent McGovern Lecturer of the International Academy of Pathology in 2003. In 2010 he was appointed Medical Board Professor to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and in 2014 he was the AB Pearson Memorial Lecturer of New Zealand Society of Pathologists. In 2016 he was James Gibson Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong and was James Gibson Lecturer to the Hong Kong Pathology Forum.

Professor Delahunt has had a major role in the accreditation of medical schools and professional Royal Colleges in Australasia and New Zealand from 1998 to 2012 as Honorary Senior Assessor for the Australian Medical Council. During this period he was responsible for the assessment of a number of medical programmes in both existing and newly established medical schools, and professional Royal Colleges. 

Professor Delahunt was appointed Honorary Consultant to the New Zealand Cancer Registry and more recently as Chair of the Ministry of Health Cancer Registry Clinical Group. Professor Delahunt served as a ministerial appointee on the Cancer Control Council of New Zealand from 2009 to 2014. 

Professor Delahunt has received numerous academic awards.  Among these he was awarded the Koss Medal of the International Society of Urological Pathology in 2003. This is the international career achievement award in the field of urological pathology. He was awarded the premier award of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, that of the Gold Medal and designation of Distinguished Fellow of the College in 2009. In 2022 he was awarded the College Medal for Meritorious Service. He was awarded one of two Golden Jubilee Medals of the Wellington Medical Research Foundation at their 50th anniversary celebrations in 2010, and the Distinguished Pathologist Medal of the International Academy of Pathology in 2013.  In 1996, he was created a Knight of the Order of St John and in 2004 he was admitted as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to pathology. In 2006 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Arts and Sciences of Cambodia (Royal Order of Moniseraphon) for services to the Cambodia. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and in 2018 he received the Hercus Medal of the RSNZ as a result of his "internationally recognised contributions as a pathologist, especially in relation to kidney and prostate cancer." In 2019 Professor Delahunt was selected as the Dominion Post Science and Technology Wellingtonian of the Year and in 2021 the New Zealand Society of Pathologists and the New Zealand Branch of the Royal College of Pathologists instituted a special gold medal for him to specifically acknowledge his scientific and professional contribution to pathology both in New Zealand and internationally.