Professor Richard Scolyer is a senior research expert at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, with extensive experience in histopathology and diagnostic oncology, and is renowned worldwide. He is the co-medical director of the Melanoma Institute Australia and an adjunct professor at the Sydney Medical School. Along with his colleague, Professor Georgina Long, he co-developed immunotherapy for melanoma, increasing the five-year survival rate for advanced melanoma from 5% to 55% over the past 15 years. He is also one of the authors of the World Health Organization Classification of Skin Tumours (2018) and has received numerous awards in Australia and internationally. In June 2021, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his outstanding service in melanoma and skin cancer research. In 2023, he received the "Outstanding Pathologist of the Year" award from the International Society of Pathology's Australian division.
In 2024, Professor Scolyer and Professor Long jointly received the "Australian of the Year" honor for their groundbreaking work in melanoma treatment. They also applied this scientific knowledge to brain cancer treatment.
In 2023, after being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, Professor Scolyer became the first person in the world to undergo preoperative combination immunotherapy for brain cancer. His treatment plan included PD-1 inhibitors, CTLA-4 inhibitors, and a three-pronged immunotherapy approach, localized radiation, multi-agent immunotherapy, and personalized tumor vaccination. His brave experience has provided new insights for treating glioblastoma and has accelerated related clinical trials.
As a world-leading scientist in melanoma pathology, Professor Scolyer's pioneering research has saved countless lives, earning him global attention and respect from both the scientific community and the public. Born in 1968, he is also an active athlete who participates in endurance sports worldwide, maintaining excellent health and a vibrant life. However, on May 20, 2023, an ordinary Saturday morning, he suddenly lost consciousness and began convulsing in his hotel room in Poland.
Professor Scolyer was rushed to the University Hospital in Krakow, where an MRI revealed a mass in his brain's temporal lobe. Having dedicated his career to treating cancer patients, he immediately realized this was not good news. As a distinguished oncologist, he had diagnosed many others with cancer, so he knew what this MRI result could mean—likely brain cancer. Moreover, for patients with high-grade gliomas, the prognosis is often shockingly poor.
Since that morning in Krakow, his sense of certainty about life was shattered. He could only measure his remaining time in months and weeks, living in a state of uncertainty. He fell into a dark despair, overwhelmed by grief, anxiety, and fear. Even he, usually so strong, could not accept this sudden tragic news and found himself crying when calling his children. He was soon flown back to Sydney, the city where he had worked and lived for decades.
On the 12th day after the severe seizure in Poland, a biopsy performed in Sydney confirmed what he and his family had feared most—the "worst case." He was diagnosed with stage 4 IDH wild-type glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. This meant that his condition had reached an advanced stage and was incurable. He was expected to survive only for a short time—months, weeks, or even less, as the disease would rapidly deteriorate until death.
"I don’t want to die. I love my life!"
This is what Professor Scolyer, co-recipient of the 2024 Australian of the Year award, wrote in his newly published memoir, Brainstorm. Just three weeks before the seizure in May 2023, he had represented Australia at the World Triathlon Championship in Ibiza.
In October 2024, Professor Scolyer's new book, Brainstorm, was officially published, and he was particularly thrilled to have made it to the publication date.
Professor Scolyer doesn't exhibit the usual stern, self-important demeanor one might expect from a leading scientist. He is humble, as if the conversation with you is the most important part of his day, even though his life remains rich and busy.
As the most published melanoma pathologist in the world, Professor Scolyer receives thousands of challenging cases every year. Shortly after his diagnosis, he decided to publicly disclose his illness. Partly to inform his friends and colleagues, but mainly to leave a memory for his three children. The news caused an outpouring of messages. Now, the whole world knows what his skull looks like, as his brain scans have been shared on social media.
Professor Georgina Long, co-medical director at the Melanoma Institute Australia and co-recipient of the 2024 Australian of the Year award, has led trials for a new class of immunotherapy drugs with astounding success in melanoma patients.
"These drugs can stimulate your body’s immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells," explained Professor Long. "We found that using these drugs before tumor removal can lead to better results." Over the past 15 years, through the efforts of Professor Long and global scientists, the five-year survival rate for advanced melanoma patients has risen from 5% to 55%.
However, despite the improvement in melanoma survival rates, the treatment for the aggressive glioblastoma that Professor Scolyer had remains unchanged over the past 20 years.
"This tumor spreads like tree roots through the brain. Under a microscope, you can't see its end," said Professor Scolyer. "Therefore, surgery or radiation alone cannot cure it. If you try to remove the whole tumor, there’s hardly any brain left." Doctors can usually only rely on chemotherapy and radiation to extend life as much as possible until patients reach palliative care and death.
From the moment the MRI results arrived from Poland, Professor Long took immediate action, consulting top experts at the Melanoma Institute Australia and experts worldwide. She had previously pioneered the successful use of immunotherapy in melanoma patients whose cancer had spread to the brain.
Quickly, she and her team devised an aggressive treatment plan for Professor Scolyer, her friend and colleague of 20 years. They decided to apply the lessons learned from melanoma immunotherapy to his brain cancer treatment. This approach had never been tried before, carrying immense risks—60% chance of death from side effects. If the therapy caused severe brain swelling, it could claim his life within days.
They estimated the chance of success to be 5%, possibly even lower than 1%. But for Professor Scolyer, "It’s worth trying!"
In order to buy as much time as possible for the drug to work and slow the tumor’s growth, they decided to delay the debulking surgery and instead have him receive a combination of three immunotherapy drugs through intravenous infusion. On the 15th day after the seizure in Krakow, the first infusion treatment began at Sydney’s Mater Hospital, lasting 4 hours. Due to side effects such as high fever, rash, and elevated liver enzymes, the second infusion was delayed.
"At first, I had large, frequent infusions every two weeks."
On the 28th day after the seizure, Professor Blinderha Shivaringen, a neurosurgeon skilled in craniotomy, performed brain surgery on Professor Scolyer. In this six-hour operation, part of the tumor was removed. She later admitted that performing surgery on a colleague and friend made her nervous and emotional. She was cautious, trying to preserve as much of Professor Scolyer’s healthy brain tissue as possible while removing the tumor.
Encouragingly, the pathology results showed that Professor Scolyer's immune cells had been activated and were likely to attack the tumor cells.
"This is an excellent result," Professor Scolyer, who had been predicted to live no more than a year, said excitedly.
This may mark a new frontier in brain cancer treatment, bringing new hope to brain cancer patients worldwide.
A Dedicated Doctor, A Devastating Diagnosis, and a Revolutionary Medical Opportunity
Brainstorm tells the extraordinary story of Professor Richard Scolyer, co-recipient of the 2024 Australian of the Year award, who bravely volunteered for experimental drug trials and fought brain cancer—using groundbreaking melanoma treatments that could save his life.
At the peak of his career, Professor Scolyer was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, a devastating blow. However, as a world-leading clinical doctor and cancer researcher, he never intended to accept the status quo—especially when it involved medical methods that had remained unchanged for nearly twenty years and a prognosis of little more than a year to live. Instead, he chose to undergo the world's first experimental treatment for brain cancer, based on the latest scientific advancements in melanoma treatment. His willingness to try this new therapy could shorten his life or save it, and while no one can predict the outcome, one thing is certain: his pioneering spirit will propel the global development of brain cancer treatment and ultimately help save more lives.
Reference
[1]. The scientist who tested his revolutionary medicine on his own brain cancer: ‘It seemed worth it to give it a crack’
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