Michael J. Solomon

Michael J. Solomon, MBBS, MSc, FRACS is Professor of Surgery and Head of the Surgical Outcomes Research Centre (SOuRCe) at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney — Australia's preeminent center for complex pelvic oncology surgery. He is internationally recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on R0 resection principles, locally advanced rectal cancer surgery, and pelvic exenteration for primary and recurrent pelvic malignancies, and has built the largest prospectively maintained pelvic exenteration database in the southern hemisphere. Dr. Solomon has produced foundational evidence establishing that R0 resection (microscopically negative margins) is the dominant modifiable prognostic factor across colorectal, pelvic, and gastrointestinal cancers, and has led systematic analyses quantifying the survival impact of margin positivity versus clearance across hundreds of patients undergoing ultra-radical pelvic surgery. His research on pelvic exenteration — total or partial removal of pelvic viscera for locally advanced or recurrent rectal and gynecological cancers — has redefined patient selection criteria, operative technique standardization, and multidisciplinary preoperative planning, demonstrating 5-year survival rates of 35–50% in carefully selected patients. Dr. Solomon established the Pelvic Exenteration Collaborative of Australasia (PelvEx Collaborative) — an international multicenter registry now including centers from Australia, the UK, Ireland, and Canada — that has produced landmark prognostic models for R0 resection prediction, survival, and quality of life after pelvic exenteration. His group has also pioneered sacral resection combined with pelvic exenteration for posteriorly fixed rectal tumors invading the sacrum, demonstrating acceptable morbidity when sacrectomy is performed at S2-3 or below. He is a past president of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSSANZ).