
The scientist who tested his revolutionary medicine on his own brain cancer: ‘It seemed worth it to give it a crack’
ichard Scolyer was fully engaged in the business of living when he suddenly received a death sentence. A person more alive would be hard to find. As an endurance athlete competing across the globe, he was in peak physical condition. As one of the world’s leading pathologists on melanoma whose pioneering research has saved thousands of lives, he was in demand. At 56, Prof Richard Scolyer was flying along. His life, he says, was “rich”. And then, on the morning of 20 May 2023, he found himself losing consciousness and convulsing on the floor in a hotel room in Poland, panicking and scared.
After this grand mal seizure, he went for an MRI scan at University hospital in Krakow. It found a mass in his temporal lobe. Scolyer knew immediately it had delivered very bad news.

Having diagnosed other people with cancer many times, he knew exactly what the finding could mean. Most likely brain cancer. He knew the outcome for a high-grade glioma was “shockingly bad”. That a brain tumour is incurable, and he would have an “horrific last few months”. He descended into black despair; devastated, anxious, terrified. He cried and cried, weeping when he rang his children.
A biopsy operation performed in Sydney 12 days later would confirm the “worst of the worst”. It was an aggressive grade 4 IDH-wildtype glioblastoma – a terminal diagnosis.
“I didn’t want to die. I loved my life,” writes this year’s co-Australian of the Year in his new memoir Brainstorm. Only three weeks before the seizure he had represented Australia at the World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Ibiza. Now the certainties had been ripped away. Now his life was measured in months and weeks. Since that Saturday morning in Krakow he has been in unchartered waters.
Scolyer is remarkably optimistic for a man who did not expect to be alive when his book came out last month. But he is. “And kicking.” If somewhat cautiously. When you are attempting to revolutionise brain cancer treatment with a one-man clinical trial you can’t take anything for granted.

There is a notable absence of gravitas and ego in Scolyer. He seems humble, vulnerable. He has a way of making it feel like this conversation is the most important thing he has to do today. Which it most certainly is not.
Scolyer is the most published melanoma pathologist in the world, sent thousands of the most difficult cases each year. Soon after his own diagnosis, he decided to go public with his diagnosis as a way of keeping friends and colleagues informed, but mainly as a memory for his three kids. The news was greeted with an avalanche of messages. And now we all know what the inside of his skull looks like because his brain scans are on his social media.
For years before his brain tumour felled him on his Polish hotel room floor, Scolyer’s medical co-director at the Melanoma Institute Australia, Georgina Long (and his co-Australian of the Year), had led trials using a new class of immunotherapy drugs that had had spectacular results on patients with melanoma. “Basically what it’s doing is stimulating your body’s own immune system to recognise cancer cells and to kill them off,” Scolyer explains. They had learned the drugs were more effective if given before the tumour is taken out. In 15 years, the five-year survival rate for advanced melanoma had gone from 5% to 55%.

But while advances had been made in melanoma survival rates, the treatment for Scolyer’s aggressive glioblastoma had not changed in 20 years.
“Basically this sort of tumour spreads like tree roots that run through your brain. If you look down a microscope you can’t see where it ends,” says Scolyer. “So you can never cure it with surgery or radiation therapy. If you tried to cut the whole tumour out you wouldn’t have much brain left.”
Therapy usually focused on prolonging life with chemotherapy and radiation until palliative care and death.
From the moment she received the MRI scans from Poland, Long had been in action, consulting the Melanoma Institute’s world-leading experts and those around the world. Long had pioneered the successful use of immunotherapy for melanoma patients whose cancer had spread to the brain.
She and the team had been developing a plan for a radical treatment for her friend and colleague of 20 years. They would take what they had learned from immunotherapy and apply it to his cancer. It had never been tried before anywhere, was seriously risky and the stakes could not be higher – there was a 60% chance the side effects could kill him. If it caused major swelling in the brain, it could kill him within days.
They estimated there might be a 5% chance of saving his life; it might be less than 1%. To Scolyer, “it seemed worth it to give it a crack”.
Hoping the tumour did not grow bigger, he would delay the debulking surgery for as long as possible to give the drugs a chance to work. He would have a combination of three immunotherapy drugs intravenously. Fifteen days after the seizure, the first four-hour infusion began at the Mater hospital in Sydney. The second dose was delayed because of side-effects, including high temperatures, a rash and high enzymes in his liver. “I had a lot of [infusions] really close together every two weeks at the start.”
Through it all he kept running and cycling.
Twenty-eight days after Krakow, craniotomy neurosurgeon Brindha Shivalingam removed pieces of the tumour in a six-hour operation. She later admitted it had been emotional for her operating on a friend. She was careful not to take “the Richard out of Richard”.
Pathology results showed his immune cells were activated and hopefully attacking the tumour cells. “It was a phenomenal result,” Scolyer says. A possible new frontier for brain cancer.
News in the same category


Don't Ignore These 15 Common Cancer Symptoms: A Guide to Early Detection

5 Hidden Nutritional Deficiencies You Likely Have (and How to Fix Them)

3-Year-Old Girl Bites and Swallows Mercury from a Broken Thermometer — Her Mother’s Quick Thinking Saves Her Life and Earns Praise from Doctors

More and More Young People Are Suffering from Colon Cancer — Doctors Warn: Eat Less of These 3 Things!

Diagnosed with Late-Stage Stomach Cancer, I Painfully Realized: 3 Foods Left Too Long in the Fridge Were the "Accomplices"

Waking Up to Shoulder Pain: Causes, Solutions, and How to Sleep Soundly

Your Lymphatic System: A Hidden Key to Lifelong Health

Doctors Issue Urgent Warning: Weight-Loss Jab Users Risk Malnutrition and Muscle Loss Amid Diet Concerns

You Should Never Ignore These 9 Things Your Fingernails Reveal About Your Health

6 Foods That Are Not Compatible with Tumors, Remember to Eat Them Regularly

Before Cancer Knocks: 4 Signs on Your Hands and Feet Not to Be Ignored

Doctors Warn: 4 Food Storage Habits in the Refrigerator That Can Cause Cancer

Doctors Said It Was Gallstones—But It Was Stage Four Cancer

20-Year-Old Teacher Dies from Liver Cancer: Doctor Warns That Odor in 3 Body Areas Could Signal a Failing Liver

Young Woman Dies at 27 from Late-Stage Thyroid Cancer: Doctors Say It's Linked to a Pre-Bedtime Habit

A 43-Year-Old Female Teacher Diagnosed with Two Types of Cancer at Once: Warning Signs Ignored for 6 Months

Beyond the Fruit: Uncovering the Science-Backed Health Benefits of Bananas and Their Peels

Life-Saving Insights: 10 Tips to Lower Your Stroke Risk & Recognize Early Warning Signs

The Power of Water Fasting: Regenerate Your Immune System, Slow Aging, and Boost Health
News Post

Natural Solutions for Gout: Tackling Uric Acid to Prevent Pain

Don't Ignore These 15 Common Cancer Symptoms: A Guide to Early Detection

5 Hidden Nutritional Deficiencies You Likely Have (and How to Fix Them)

Scientists Turn Coffee Waste Into Bricks—And They’re Twice as Strong as Standard

The Amount of Electricity Now Being Generated From Solar Is Unbelievable

3-Year-Old Girl Bites and Swallows Mercury from a Broken Thermometer — Her Mother’s Quick Thinking Saves Her Life and Earns Praise from Doctors

More and More Young People Are Suffering from Colon Cancer — Doctors Warn: Eat Less of These 3 Things!

Diagnosed with Late-Stage Stomach Cancer, I Painfully Realized: 3 Foods Left Too Long in the Fridge Were the "Accomplices"

Scientists Turn Coffee Waste Into Bricks—And They’re Twice as Strong as Standard

Study Reveals Reading is a Complex, Flexible Brain Process Involving Multiple Interacting Neural Networks

Australia Is Using 3D Printers To Save Coral Reefs, And The Fish Are Already Moving In

Planet Earth Has Been Spinning Faster Lately

Goodbye Nursing Homes! The New Trend Is CoHousing With Friends

Global warming could permanently shift rainfall patterns, affecting water access for 2 billion people worldwide, study shows.

The Amount of Electricity Now Being Generated From Solar Is Unbelievable

Scientists Discover Cosmic Glitch That Challenges Everything We Know About Gravity—And May Mean Our Universe Is an Illusion

The Forgotten Daughter: How I Found My Worth After Being Overlooked by My Own Family
A woman reflects on growing up neglected in her own family, learning to embrace her true worth after years of being overlooked. A powerful story of reclaiming respect, love, and belonging.

My Sister Threw Our Grandpa a 90th Birthday Party but Karma Hit Back When She Demanded He Pay for It
When Lily’s sister, Ava, threw their grandpa a 90th birthday party, she made a shocking demand that would change everything. Find out what happened when Lily stood up for her grandpa.

My MIL Demanded I Give Back My Engagement Ring Because It 'Belonged to Her Side of the Family'
When my husband proposed, he gave me a beautiful vintage ring that had been in his family for generations. But his mother decided it wasn't mine to keep. She demanded it back, and I handed it over, too stunned to argue. I thought that was the end of it...

This brave woman claims that having a stroke and losing her ability to move below the waist was the best thing that has ever happened to her
This brave woman claims that having a stroke and losing her ability to move below the waist was the best thing that has ever happened to her.