A renowned Australian pathologist and oncologist is cancer-free a year after he became the first subject of his own experimental therapy to fight an aggressive form of brain cancer that claims most of its victims in less than a year.
University of Sydney professor Richard Scolyer was traveling throughout Europe last May when he suffered a seizure in Poland, The New York Post reported.
After an MRI back in Australia, the respected doctor received a terminal diagnosis.
The type of glioblastoma — an aggressive and terminal form of brain cancer — that he had meant he had roughly one year to live, or so he was told.
Scolyer shared on his social media platform X Monday that a year after his diagnosis, he was cancer-free.
I had brain #MRI scan last Thursday looking for recurrent #glioblastoma (&/or treatment complications). I found out yesterday that there is still no sign of recurrence. I couldn’t be happier!!!!!
Thank you to the fabulous team looking after me so well especially my wife Katie &… pic.twitter.com/WdqZKLDvge
— Professor Richard Scolyer AO (@ProfRScolyerMIA) May 13, 2024
The doctor’s own groundbreaking work on a different form of cancer, melanoma, is credited with his survival.
The BBC, which interviewed Scolyer on Tuesday, reported his work on successfully eliminating melanoma in nearly half of his patients is being used on him.
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His approach to immunotherapy “uses the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells, has dramatically improved outcomes for advanced melanoma patients globally,” the BBC reported.
Half of Scolyer’s melanoma patients have been cured of skin cancer, while only 10 percent of most people struggling with the aggressive cancer report beating it for good.
Now, following his Monday MRI, the 57-year-old is beating the odds with his own cancer. He told the BBC he was anxious about his one-year checkup.
“To be honest, I was more nervous than I have been for any previous scan,” he said. “I’m just thrilled and delighted… couldn’t be happier.”
“I’m the best I have felt for yonks (a long time),” Scolyer 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.”
The husband and father of three also said he was “proud” of his medical team – those who were “willing to take the risk in going down this path.”
Scolyer and his colleague at Melanoma Institute Australia, oncologist Georgina Long, worked together to craft a care plan they thought might work for him. There were a few bumps in the road.
The doctor suffered seizures, pneumonia and liver issues. But so far, the results are self-evident.
Scolyer shared his hope that his own success with immunotherapy to treat cancer can lead to more success in others.
“[It] provides some hope that maybe this is a direction that’s worth investigating more formally,” Scolyer said.
Oncologist Roger Stupp, an expert who specializes in the treatment of glioblastoma, told the BBC he wants to see how Scolyer is doing later this year before he becomes too excited about the groundbreaking approach to treating the brain cancer that claims the lives of so many.
While Stupp found Monday’s MRI results “encouraging,” he said he wants to see how Scolyer is doing in another six to 12 months.
