How Richard Scolyer made his mark in melanoma research

Richard Scolyer and Georgina Long met with King Charles III at the Melanoma Institute in 2024. (Getty Images: Pool) Link copiedShareShare articleRichard Scolyer, the renowned Australian pathologist who died on Sunday at the age of 59, was instrumental in lowering melanoma deaths across the country. "Whatever happens, I feel like there will be a legacy from what Georgina, our team and I have tried to do," the former Australian of the Year wrote in his 2024 memoir, Brainstorm. Passionate about people and the power of medical research, melanoma expert Professor Richard Scolyer leaves behind a legacy of pioneering cancer treatment. Through consultation on external specimens, with diagnostic and classification frameworks now used worldwide, and as a devoted teacher and mentor, Professor Scolyer leaves an indelible mark on all who had the privilege of working alongside him. Colleague and friend Georgina Long said in a statement that Professor Scolyer was a truly extraordinary pathologist. "The 'pathologists' pathologist' — who also made generous time for clinicians navigating complex diagnostic cases, understanding that an accurate tissue diagnosis was critical to patient care," she said. "His knowledge was vast, his skill exceptional, with an unparalleled eye for accurate tissue diagnoses, and the precision to apply decades of experience where it mattered most." Professor Scolyer decided in his teens that he wanted to be a specialist doctor. Once he completed medical school at the University of Tasmania, he started on a 15-year path to becoming a pathologist. Early in his pathology career he took a job at the Melanoma Institute Australia, which meant he could split his time between undertaking research at the University of Sydney and diagnosing melanoma cases at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer mostly caused by exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. Have you benefited from melanoma treatment? Share your experience with us. It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia. If not caught early, it can be aggressive and can spread around the body from only a small tumour. When Professor Scolyer began working on melanoma, the only treatment available was surgery. If the cancer had already spread, it was almost impossible to treat and was often considered a death sentence. More than 90 per cent of people with melanoma that had spread died within five years. Working as a clinician, he discovered a wealth of patient data and tissue samples that could be used to investigate better treatment options. Richard Scolyer with his wife, Katie, and children, Em, Matt and Luce. (Australian Story: Jack Fisher) Cancer epidemiologist Anne Cust, from the University of Sydney, said this helped to advance the understanding of what causes melanoma. "Particularly the genetic changes that underpin development of melanoma," she said. "Part of that was facilitated by the creation of a large biobank of samples [in 1998]." Around the same time, in the 2000s, immunotherapy drugs took off. These drugs modify the immune system to attack cancer cells, including skin cancers. "The early results were so stunning that it has been described as a 'penicillin moment' for melanoma treatment," Professor Scolyer wrote in Brainstorm. He and Professor Long conducted clinical trials using different combinations of immunotherapy drugs to treat melanoma patients with as few side effects as possible. Richard Scolyer and Georgina Long were colleagues but also close friends. (Australian Story: Vanessa Gorman) Early results around the world were phenomenal. In stage four melanoma patients, where the cancer had spread and who had no more treatment options, a drug called Anti-CTLA-4 provided a 20 per cent survival rate over three years. When combined with another drug, Anti-PD-1, patients had even more impressive results. A randomised phase 2 clinical trial led by Professor Long found that for those with melanoma that had spread to the brain, 42 per cent of the patients treated were still alive seven years later. But the pair's biggest breakthrough came after trialling the impact of the drugs depending on whether they were given before or after surgery. They undertook one of the world's first clinical trials to use immunotherapy drugs in a much earlier stage of treatment. "Historically, melanoma was always a surgical disease. You cut it out and it would come back in high-risk cases," Professor Long told ABC Radio National's Sunday Extra. Todd Harper, a childhood friend of Professor Scolyer and Cancer Council Victoria's chief executive, told ABC Melbourne that Professor Scolyer was not only committed to improving treatment outcomes for melanoma. "He understood the importance and the invaluable contribution that prevention made," he said. "He really was someone who saw the totality of the opportunity with melanoma and cancers more broadly." Today, the survival rate for people with stage 3

How Richard Scolyer made his mark in melanoma research

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