- Written by Tiffany Turnbull
- BBC News, Sydney
image source, Getty Images
A year after receiving the world’s first treatment for glioblastoma, Australian doctor Richard Scolier remains cancer-free.
This respected pathologist’s experimental treatment is based on his own pioneering research into melanoma.
Scoria’s glioblastoma subtype is so aggressive that most patients survive less than a year.
But on Tuesday, the 57-year-old announced that his latest MRI scan showed no recurrence of the tumor.
“I couldn’t be happier!!!” he wrote in a social media update.
Professor Scoria is an internationally renowned pathologist who was named Australian of the Year this year, along with colleague and friend Georgina Long, for their life-changing research into melanoma. Ta.
Over the past decade, co-directors of the Melanoma Institute of Australia and their colleagues have been researching immunotherapy, which uses the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells, to dramatically improve outcomes for patients with advanced melanoma around the world. It has improved. Half are now effectively cured, up from less than 10%.
It is that research that Professor Long and his team of doctors are using to treat Professor Scoria, and hope that it will also find a cure for his cancer.
For melanoma, Professor Long and her team believe that immunotherapy is more effective when multiple drugs are used in combination and when the immunotherapy is administered before surgery to remove the tumor. I discovered that. Last year, Professor Scolyer became the first brain tumor patient to receive combined neoadjuvant immunotherapy.
He was also the first person to receive a vaccine customized to the characteristics of his tumor, which increases the drug’s ability to detect cancer.
The results of the study to date have sparked great excitement and optimism that the duo may be on the cusp of a discovery that could help the approximately 300,000 people diagnosed with brain tumors worldwide each year. It also creates a new perspective.
Dr Roger Stupp, the doctor for whom the current glioblastoma treatment regimen is named, told the BBC earlier this year that Professor Scolyer’s prognosis was “bleak” and he doubted the treatment would be effective. He said it was too early to judge.
He added that while Scoria’s early results were “encouraging,” he would have liked to see him get to 12 or even 18 months without recurrence before getting too excited.
Professors Skolyar and Long previously said the chances of Professor Skolyar being cured were “extremely small”, but they hoped the experimental treatment could extend his life and lead to clinical trials for glioblastoma patients. Stated.