Renowned melanoma pathologist's personal fight against cancer

But now he's in a race to save his own life.

Professor Scolyer is the world's leading publisher in melanoma pathology, having co-authored more than 700 publications and books on the subject.

But while on a work trip in Poland in May of this year, Professor Scolyer's life changed when he suffered a seizure.

Subsequent scans showed he had stage four glioblastoma, an aggressive and often terminal brain cancer.

"I'm not ready to die," Professor Scolyer said.

"I'm 56. And to be told at 56 that you have an incurable cancer is devastating.

"Just two weeks before I was diagnosed, I was representing Australia with my eldest daughter at the World Triathlon Aquathlon Championships; I just felt normal before it all happened.

"There's so much more I want to do. I love my life, I really do."

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain, and the mainstay of treatment is surgery, followed by radiation and chemotherapy.

"Currently, it is not curable, meaning there's no way to remove all of the cancer cells," he said.

"For this type of cancer, its periphery sneaks off like tree roots that go off into your normal brain tissue, and you can never cut it all out or mop it all up with local therapy.

"It always comes back down the track. You can delay it, but if you tried to cut it all out, you basically have to remove one half of your brain or more."

But Professor Scolyer is not giving up hope.

"Treatment for this type of cancer hasn't changed in 18 years," he said.

"In melanoma treatment 15 years ago, if you had advanced stage melanoma that spread around your body, it was also basically incurable.

"That five-year survival rate was less than 5 per cent. And that now, thanks to the discoveries that we've led at Melanoma Institute, more than 55 per cent of people are alive five years later.

"So based on discoveries that we've made in melanoma, it's now used in lung cancer, renal cell cancer, kidney cancer, many others - but not brain cancer. And that didn't sit right with me."

Along with his colleague Professor Georgina Long AO, Professor Scolyer is pioneering work on pre-surgery immunotherapy treatments for brain cancer.

"Professor Georgina is the world leader in the use and clinical application of immunotherapy, and she brought it up with me and said we should give it a crack and try it in brain cancer," he said.

"And so together, we formulated a plan."

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps boost the immune system to help the body find and destroy cancer cells.

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy treatment is when immunotherapy is administered before surgery, with the goal of shrinking a tumour or stopping the spread of cancer to make surgery less invasive and more effective.

"We were astounded by the changes that happened within that two-week window period between receiving the immunotherapy and when the tumour was excised," Professor Scolyer said.

"And it showed a marked increase in the number of immune cells or subtype called lymphocytes within the tumour.

"We're also able to show thirdly, that the immunotherapy can cross the blood-brain barrier, which science previously said was not possible."

Professor Scolyer also received a personalised brain cancer vaccine based on the RNA and DNA of his tumour.

While it is still too early to tell whether the treatments would mean any improvement in his clinical outlook, Professor Scolyer is more than happy to be involved in the clinical trials.

"Even if I don't have any improvement in my outcome, I'm very proud that we've helped create a new form of therapy, which will be tested more carefully in future brain cancer patients," he said.

"Because there are some risks associated with doing it.

"I could potentially die earlier, or I could still stay alive but have the deterioration in my quality of life.

"But Georgina's treated more patients than any doctor in the world with immunotherapy, so I am in capable hands."

Despite his diagnosis, Professor Scolyer, co-director of the Sydney-based Melanoma Institute Australia, continues to lead the charge for melanoma awareness, having come to Launceston recently for a conference.

"Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma anywhere in the world. One Australian gets diagnosed every 30 minutes, and an Australian dies every six hours," he said.

"So it's this major public health problem for our country. I'll never stop being passionate about what I do."

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