Doctor reveals he is cancer-free a year after undergoing own breakthrough treatment for incurable brain tumour
14 May 2024, 15:22 | Updated: 14 May 2024, 15:27
An Australian doctor has revealed that he is still cancer-free a year after undergoing a world-first treatment for an aggressive brain cancer.
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Professor Richard Scolyer, 57, was diagnosed with ‘incurable’ grade 4 brain cancer after he became ill while on holiday in Poland last year.
The cancer, known as glioblastoma, is considered to be the ‘worst of the worst’ for this type of disease and is so aggressive most patients survive less than a year.
But on Tuesday, Professor Scolyer revealed something remarkable a year since his diagnosis - his latest MRI scan showed no recurrence of the brain tumour.
Sharing the results of the scan, Professor Scolyer wrote on X: “I'm just thrilled and delighted... I couldn't be happier.”
He had undergone an experimental therapy based on his own research of melanoma, a type of skin cancer.
A treatment based on immunotherapy was used, which teaches the body's immune system to attack cancer cells.
His colleague and friend, Professor Georgina Long and her team found that immunotherapy works better when a combination of drugs is administered before any surgery to receive a tumour.
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Professor Scolyer then became the first brain cancer patient to ever receive this type of treatment, as well as the first to be administered a vaccine personalised to his tumour’s characteristics.
"I'm the best I have felt for yonks," he told the BBC.
“It certainly doesn't mean that my brain cancer is cured... but it's just nice to know that it hasn't come back yet, so I've still got some more time to enjoy my life with my wife Katie and my three wonderful kids."
Professor Scolyer was this year named Australian of the Year alongside Professor Long for their work on melanoma.
While they have previously said the chances of finding a cure are ‘miniscule’, their work has generated excitement that they may be on the way to making a discovery that could help extend the lives of some 300,000 people diagnosed with brain cancer every year.
Professor Scolyer was diagnosed with brain cancer last June after suffering headaches and seizures during a holiday in Poland.
A brain scan revealed an area of light, cloudy matter in the top-right corner of his skull.
At the time, he said: “I’m no expert in radiology, but… in my heart I knew it was a tumour.”
But he also said he was determined to try and find a treatment for the “incurable cancer”.
He said: “It didn't sit right with me, to just accept certain death without trying something,' he said. 'It's an incurable cancer? Well bugger that!”
It is hoped the experimental treatment will lead to clinical trials to eventually help extend other patients’ lives.
Professor Long said: “We've generated a whole heap of data, to then make a foundation for that next step, so that we can help more people.
“We're not there yet. What we have to really focus on is showing that this pre-surgery, combination immunotherapy type of approach works in a large number of people.”
Roger Stupp - the doctor after whom the current protocol for treating glioblastomas is named - earlier said that while the results of this treatment were “encouraging” he wanted to see him reach 12, or even 18 months, without recurrence before getting excited.
