Richard Scolyer Has Died

Australian pathologist Richard Scolyer, 59, a pioneering melanoma researcher who made global headlines for undergoing experimental immunotherapy treatment for an aggressive brain tumor developed by his collaborator Professor Georgina Long, has died three years after his diagnosis. The groundbreaking treatment—a world-first combination of pre-surgery immunotherapy and personalized tumor vaccine—showed promising results and has sparked an early-stage clinical trial in the US. Scolyer and Long's decades of research on immunotherapy dramatically improved survival rates for advanced melanoma patients globally, from less than 10% to approximately 50%.