Overview
Background
Hemamali Samaratunga MBBS (Hons) LRCP (London) MRCS (UK) FRCPA, FRCPath
- Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Managing Director, Aquesta Specialised Uropathology
- Full Professor, University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine
- Visiting Medical Officer, Greenslopes Private Hospital
Hemamali graduated with honours from the University of Sri Lanka, Colombo Medical School and completed Pathology specialty training in Queensland. She held a number of consultant posts in both hospital and private practice. In 2008 she established Aquesta Uropathology which now provides diagnostic uropathology services to the majority of urologists in Queensland and Northern New South Wales. In addition to this she maintains a large second opinion consultation practice with requests obtained from throughout Australia and from overseas.
She is active in Genitourinary Pathology research with collaborators in Australia, USA, Canada, Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Wellington School of Medicine in New Zealand. She held the position of Secretary of the International Society of Urological Pathology from 2015 to 2019.
She was a contributor to the 2004, 2015 and 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) books on Classification of Tumours: Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of the Urinary and Male Reproductive System. She participated in the 2015 revision of the WHO Tumour Classification in Zurich, Switzerland (4th edition) as member, Prostate Tumour Panel. She was a representative of the Expert Groups formulating structured reporting protocols for the Royal College Pathologists of Australasia on kidney, testis and prostate cancer and is currently chairperson of the structured reporting protocols for Genitourinary cancer. She is also currently the Convener for the RCPA Uropathology Quality Assurance Program.
Qualifications
MBBS (HONS) LRCP (London) MRCS (UK) FRCPA FRCPath
Current UQ Appointments
Academic Title-Professor
Non-UQ Appointments
2008 - current: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist & Managing Director, Aquesta Specialized Uropathology
2015 - Current: Visiting Medical Officer, Greenslopes Private Hospital
2003 - 2021: Visiting Medical Officer, Princess Alexandra Hospital
June 2001 - Oct 2008: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology, Brisbane
1993 - 1997: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Royal Brisbane Hospital
1998 - 2001: Senior Anatomical Pathologist, North Brisbane Hospitals Board
Research Interests
- Granular tumour necrosis
- Diagnosis of limited adenocarcinoma on prostate needle biopsy
- Ductal adenocarcinoma of prostate
- Mucinous adenocarcinoma of prostate
- Radical prostatectomy handling and reporting
- Micropapillary urothelial cancer
- Mimics of bladder cancer
Awards and other Esteem Indicators
2017 Admitted to Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists, London (FRC Path) for sustained excellence in published works
2022 Awarded the Grawitz Medal of the International Society of Urological Pathology for distinguished service to the discipline of Urological Pathology
2023 Author of the publication Percentage grade 4 tumour predicts outcome for prostate adenocarcinoma in needle biopsies from patients with advanced disease: Ten year data from the TROG 03.04 RADAR Trial. Pathology 54: 49- 54, awarded the prize of
Article of the Year by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.
2024 Distinguished Fellowship Award of the Royal College Pathologists of Australasia
For distinguished service to the discipline of Urological Pathology
Keywords
Pathology, Genitourinary cancer, Prostate, Kidney, Urinary tract, Testis, Penis
Availability
- Professor Hemamali Samaratunga is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Research impacts
She has over 320 scientific publications and has a Google Scholar H-index of 56 with 18150 citations. To date she has authored or co-authored 28 books, 21 book chapters and 274 peer-reviewed publications. Apart from her primary research activities Professor Samaratunga actively collaborates with other research groups and is a regular contributor - often as primary or senior author to international research consortia. One notable contribution has been her involvement in the development of artificial intelligence programs for the reporting of prostate cancer. In collaborative studies involving colleagues from the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and the United States she was chosen to be one of three expert pathologists to review all cases, thus setting the gold standard for the diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer. These studies have been published in highly prestigious journals as noted in her CV. Importantly in comparative studies, the AI program informed by the findings of group of three pathologists that included Professor Samaratunga, outperformed all other AI programs.
Works
Search Professor Hemamali Samaratunga’s works on UQ eSpace
2008
Journal Article
Ductal adenocarcinoma of the prostate - Current opinion and controversies
Samaratunga, Hemamali and Delahunt, Brett (2008). Ductal adenocarcinoma of the prostate - Current opinion and controversies. Analytical and Quantitative Cytology and Histology, 30 (4), 237-246.
2008
Journal Article
Loss of heterozygosity at the BRCA2 locus detected by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification is common in prostate cancers from men with a germline BRCA2 mutation
Willems, Amber J., Dawson, Sarah -J., Samaratunga, Hema, De Luca, Alessandro, Antill, Yoland C., Hopper, John L. and Thorne, Heather J. (2008). Loss of heterozygosity at the BRCA2 locus detected by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification is common in prostate cancers from men with a germline BRCA2 mutation. Clinical Cancer Research, 14 (10), 2953-2961. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-07-5237
2008
Journal Article
Kallikrein-related peptidase 4( KLK4)initiates intracellular signaling via protease-activated receptors(PARs):KLK4 and PAR-2 are co-expressed during prostate cancer progression
Ramsay, Andrew J., Dong, Ying, Hunt, Melanie L., Linn, MayLa, Samaratunga, Hemamali, Clements, Judith A. and Hooper, John D. (2008). Kallikrein-related peptidase 4( KLK4)initiates intracellular signaling via protease-activated receptors(PARs):KLK4 and PAR-2 are co-expressed during prostate cancer progression. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 283 (18), 12293-12304. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M709493200
2008
Conference Publication
Hybrid tumors in renal oncocytosis: the missing link between oncocytoma and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma?
Cheng, Liang, Gobbo, Stefano, Eccher, Albino, Eble, John, Delahunt, Brett, Grignon, David, Samaratunga, Hemamali, Martignoni, Guido, Zhang, Shaobo, Wang, Mingsheng, Cossu-Rocca, Paolo and Brunelli, Matteo (2008). Hybrid tumors in renal oncocytosis: the missing link between oncocytoma and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma?. NEW YORK: SPRINGER.
2008
Journal Article
A novel transcript from the KLKP1 gene is androgen regulated, down-regulated during prostate cancer progression and encodes the first non-serine protease identified from the human kallikrein gene locus
Myers, Stephen A., Kaushal, Aneel, Dong, Ying, Lai, John, Tan, Olivia L., Bui, Loan T., Hunt, Melanie L., Digby, Matthew R., Samaratunga, Hemamali, Gardiner, Robert A., Clements, Judith A. and Hooper, John D. (2008). A novel transcript from the KLKP1 gene is androgen regulated, down-regulated during prostate cancer progression and encodes the first non-serine protease identified from the human kallikrein gene locus. Prostate, 68 (4), 381-399. doi: 10.1002/pros.20685
2008
Journal Article
Tissue-specific promoter utilisation of the kallikrein-related peptidase genes, KLK5 and KLK7, and cellular localisation of the encoded proteins suggest roles in exocrine pancreatic function
Dong, Ying, Matigian, Nick, Harvey, Tracey J., Samaratunga, Hemamali, Hooper, John D. and Clements, Judith A. (2008). Tissue-specific promoter utilisation of the kallikrein-related peptidase genes, KLK5 and KLK7, and cellular localisation of the encoded proteins suggest roles in exocrine pancreatic function. Biological Chemistry, 389 (2), 99-109. doi: 10.1515/BC.2008.013
2008
Conference Publication
Anterior dominant prostate cancer compared with posterior cancers in a PSA non-screened population
Samaratunga, H., Delahun, B., Duffy, D. and Yaxley, J. (2008). Anterior dominant prostate cancer compared with posterior cancers in a PSA non-screened population. 97th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology, Denver CO, United States, Mar 01-07, 2008. London, United Kingdom: Nature Publishing Group.
2008
Journal Article
What is the molecular pathology of low-risk prostate cancer?
Samaratunga, Hemamali and Epstein, Jonathan I. (2008). What is the molecular pathology of low-risk prostate cancer?. World Journal of Urology, 26 (5), 431-436. doi: 10.1007/s00345-008-0260-5
2008
Conference Publication
Anterior dominant prostate cancer compared with posterior cancers in a PSA non-screened population
Samaratunga, H., Delahunt, B., Duffy, D. and Yaxley, J. (2008). Anterior dominant prostate cancer compared with posterior cancers in a PSA non-screened population. 97th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology, Denver Co, Mar 01-07, 2008. NEW YORK: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP.
2008
Journal Article
Identification of claudin-4 as a marker highly overexpressed in both primary and metastatic prostate cancer
Kelly Anne Landers, Samaratunga, Hemamali, Linda Teng, Buck, M., Burger, Michelle J., Betty Scells, Lavin, Martin F. and Gardiner, Robert A. (2008). Identification of claudin-4 as a marker highly overexpressed in both primary and metastatic prostate cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 99 (3), 491-501. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604486
2008
Conference Publication
Prostatic trypsin-like kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and other prostate-expressed tryptic proteinases as regulators of signalling via proteinase-activated receptors (PARs)
Ramsay, Andrew J., Reid, Janet C., Adams, Mark N., Samaratunga, Hemamali, Dong, Ying, Clements, Judith A. and Hooper, John D. (2008). Prostatic trypsin-like kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and other prostate-expressed tryptic proteinases as regulators of signalling via proteinase-activated receptors (PARs). 2nd International Symposium on Kallikrein and Kallikrein-Related Peptidases (ISK 2007), Santorini, Greece, 16-18 October 2007. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/BC.2008.078
2008
Journal Article
Cellular angiofibroma of the scrotum
Samaratunga, Hemamali and Fitzpatrick, Peter (2008). Cellular angiofibroma of the scrotum. Pathology, 40 (3), 330-333. doi: 10.1080/00313020701716409
2008
Conference Publication
Any proportion of ductal adenocarcinoma of the prostate predicts higher stage disease
Samaratunga, H., Delahunt, B., Duffy, D., Brown, I. and Yaxley, J. (2008). Any proportion of ductal adenocarcinoma of the prostate predicts higher stage disease. 97th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology, Denver, CO, United States, 1-7 March 2008. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
2007
Journal Article
Prostatic ductal adenocarcinoma presenting as a urethral polyp: a clinicopathological study of eight cases of a lesion with the potential to be misdiagnosed as a benign prostatic urethral polyp
Samaratunga, Hemamali and Letizia, Bernadette (2007). Prostatic ductal adenocarcinoma presenting as a urethral polyp: a clinicopathological study of eight cases of a lesion with the potential to be misdiagnosed as a benign prostatic urethral polyp. Pathology, 39 (5), 476-481. doi: 10.1080/00313020701570004
2007
Journal Article
Significance of minute focus of adenocarcinoma on prostate needle biopsy
Samaratunga, Hemamali, Yaxley, John, Kerr, Kris, McClymont, Kelly and Duffy, David (2007). Significance of minute focus of adenocarcinoma on prostate needle biopsy. Urology, 70 (2), 299-302. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2007.03.068
2007
Journal Article
A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions. (vol 30, pg 1281, 2006)
De Marzo, A. M., Platz, E. A., Epstein, J., Ali, T., Billis, A., Chan, T. Y., Cheng, L., Datta, M., Egevad, L., Ertoy-Baydar, D., Farre, X., Fine, S. W., Iczkowski, K. A., Ittmann, M., Knudsen, B. S., Loda, M., Lopez-Beltran, A., Magi-Galluzzi, C., Mikuz, G., Montironi, R., Pikarsky, E., Pizov, G., Rubin, M. A., Samaratunga, H., Sebo, T., Sesterhenn, I. A., Shah, R. B., Signoretti, S., Simko, J. ... Lucia, M. S. (2007). A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions. (vol 30, pg 1281, 2006). American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 31 (4), 652-652.
2007
Conference Publication
Multiple molecular markers in the diagnosis of prostate cancer from prostatic fluid
Gardiner, R. A., Burger, M. J., Landers, K. A., Roper, K., Scells, B., Samaratunga, M. L. T. H., Yaxley, J., Stening, S. and Lavin, M. F. (2007). Multiple molecular markers in the diagnosis of prostate cancer from prostatic fluid. Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand 60th Annual Scientific Meeting, Adelaide, Australia, 18-22 February 2007. London, UK: Blackwell Science. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2007.06719.x
2006
Journal Article
A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions (vol 30, pg 1281, 2006)
De Marzo, A. M., Platz, E. A., Epstein, J., Ali, T., Billis, A., Chan, T. Y., Cheng, L., Datta, M., Egevad, L., Ertoy-Baydar, D., Farree, X., Fine, S. W., Iczkowski, K. A., Ittmann, M., Knudsen, B. S., Loda, M., Lopez-Beltran, A., Magi-Galluzzi, C., Mikuz, G., Montironi, R., Pikarsky, E., Pizov, G., Rubin, M. A., Samaratunga, H., Sebo, T., Sesterhenn, I. A., Shah, R. B., Signoretti, S., Simko, J. ... Lucia, M. S. (2006). A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions (vol 30, pg 1281, 2006). American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 30 (11), 1489-1489.
2006
Conference Publication
The significance of finding a small focus of prostatic adenocarcinoma on needle biopsy
Samaratunga, H, Yaxley, J, Kerr, K and McClymont, K (2006). The significance of finding a small focus of prostatic adenocarcinoma on needle biopsy. 95th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology, Atlanta, Georgia, 11-17 February 2006 . London, United Kingdom: Nature Publishing Group.
2006
Journal Article
A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions
De Marzo A.M., Platz E.A., Epstein J.I., Ali T., Billis A., Chan T.Y., Cheng L., Datta M., Egevad L., Ertoy-Baydar D., Farree X., Fine S.W., Iczkowski K.A., Ittmann M., Knudsen B.S., Loda M., Lopez-Beltran A., Magi-Galluzzi C., Mikuz G., Montironi R., Pikarsky E., Pizov G., Rubin M.A., Samaratunga H., Sebo T., Sesterhenn I.A., Shah R.B., Signoretti S., Simko J. ... Lucia M.S. (2006). A working group classification of focal prostate atrophy lesions. American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 30 (10), 1281-1291. doi: 10.1097/01.pas.0000213289.50660.be
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Hemamali Samaratunga is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Completed supervision
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Exploring Resistance of Renal Cell Carcinoma to Sunitinib Therapy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor David Vesey
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
Cellular and molecular mechanisms of pancreatitis in atrophy and regeneration
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
For media enquiries about Professor Hemamali Samaratunga's areas of expertise, story ideas and help finding experts, contact our Media team: