Pioneering Australian physician and athlete Richard Scolyer, who underwent an experimental treatment of his own design for a deadly form of brain cancer, passed away at the age of 59, three years after his diagnosis.
Scolyer was a world-leading melanoma specialist who helped develop immunotherapies that raised the five-year survival rate for melanoma patients from 5% to 55%.
He turned his expertise toward glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer that typically kills patients within 12 to 14 months of diagnosis.
Working alongside his friend and colleague Georgina Long, co-director of the Melanoma Institute Australia, Scolyer developed a triple immunotherapy regimen designed to shrink the tumor before it was surgically removed.
After surgery, he received an experimental, personalized vaccine targeting glioblastoma cells. In 2025, his case was published in Nature Medicine.
It remains unclear whether the triple therapy was what allowed him to live three years, far longer than the average glioblastoma patient. A clearer picture is expected to emerge from a clinical trial of the new approach currently underway at Duke University in the United States.
Scolyer regularly posted updates about his journey on Facebook, and in March 2025 he announced that the tumor had returned.
Knowing the end was near, he wrote an open letter that was made public after his death. “I wanted to keep contributing, even in the darkest moment of my life,” it reads. “I am writing this letter as a final farewell to all those I have had the immense privilege of loving, sharing life’s adventures with, collaborating with, and knowing during a life that can only be described as filled with happiness, optimism, opportunity, and passion.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described Professor Scolyer as “one of our brightest minds,” adding that the remarkable man who became the subject of his own research had opened his heart to the public and inspired everyone through the process.
Scolyer was also an accomplished runner, cyclist, and swimmer who had represented Australia in several triathlon world championships. He is survived by his wife, pathologist Katie Nichol, and their three children.
