About
Specialist Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgeon
BSc (Med), MBBS (1st Hon), PhD, FRACS
About Professor Christopher Cao
Christopher graduated with First Class Honours from the University of New South Wales and scored 99/99 in both steps of the United States Medical Licensing Exam. This was followed by a pre-internship at Yale University, USA. After his cardiothoracic surgical training with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Sydney, his specialist Fellowship training was completed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA, the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center. He was then invited to be a Faculty Member in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at New York University Medical Center, where he gained additional experience in minimally invasive cardiac surgery as well as heart and lung transplantation.
Professor Cao has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles in high-impact international scientific journals and textbooks. His PhD with Sydney University was focused on the surgical management of pleural and lung cancers. He is the first author in one of the largest international registries on robotic surgery to date. As an Academic Surgeon, Dr. Cao has supervised over 40 students from UNSW, University of Sydney, Cornell University, and New York University. He has a keen interest in medical education and team-building, as shown by his position in numerous Editorial Boards in international peer-reviewed journals and his Professorship with Sydney University.
Professor Christopher Cao’s clinical interests include minimally invasive and robotic thoracic and cardiac surgery. To make further enquires about your heart or lung-related condition, or to make a referral, please contact his team at [email protected]
We welcome interstate and international patients.
Clinical Experience
Professor Christopher Cao was the first Australian surgeon to complete a Fellowship in robotic thoracic surgery, when he operated with Dr. Bernard Park, the first surgeon to perform robotic thoracic surgery in North America, and Dr. Valerie Rusch, the President of the American College of Surgeons.
His specialized robotic training was completed in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, the largest and oldest private cancer hospital in the world. Since his clinical practice began in Sydney, Dr. Cao has performed one of the highest numbers of robotic thoracic operations in Australasia.
Academic Research
Over the past decade, Professor Cao has collaborated academically with leading international robotic thoracic surgeons, including Professor Franca Melfi, who published the first scientific paper on robotic thoracic surgery in 2002.
More recently, Professor Cao collated the largest international database on robotic thoracic surgery to date, with publications as the First Author in the top three international cardiothoracic journals – Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
Education & Leadership
Professor Cao has been invited to make dozens of presentations in international scientific meetings as a senior Faculty Member over the last 15 years. More recently, he was invited to be the Thoracic Leader in the Robotic Summit in Sydney and the International Society of Robotic Surgery Conference in Melbourne.
Professor Cao was elected to be the Thoracic Representative in the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons, 2024 - 2026.
As an Educator, Christopher Cao is the Leading Australian surgical representative to update the thoracic surgical curriculum for the next generation of surgeons in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
